Harry Potter: A Brave Beginning
by M.N.Moore
Summary: Orphaned after the death of his superhero parents, a young boy is raised by his harsh relations, unaware of his heritage. It is only when he is invited to join the Justice Academy of America that he begins a new journey, a brave beginning...*FINISHED*
1. Fallen Heroes

**Harry Potter: A Brave Beginning**

**The Justice Academy of America**

**Author's Note: **I'm starting this story to continue what I hope to be a series of stories that retells the story of the boy-who-lived in several different ways. This is the second, the first being my story about Luna, A Prophecy Undone. I hope that you like this version and, no, before you say anything, I am _not _trying for strict canon.

**Disclaimer: **I do not claim any ownership of either the characters or plot from Harry Potter nor any from the DC Universe.

**Fallen Heroes**

The world was one of heroes and epic battles—of men who were more than men, women of great power, and unspeakable acts of evil. For those who were ordinary the acts of these gods were little more than stories told over breakfasts and dinner tables, or reports that came to them through the evening news. The few who were witness to the battles—people who made their homes in the big cities where they took place—could never put into words what exactly they saw.

Many held the heroes as Gods—protectors to those who could not protect themselves. Still others saw them as no heroes at all, but charlatans whose own existence had brought the sudden onslaught of monsters and villains into the world.

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of 1207 Hickory Street, fell firmly in the camp of the latter. Mr. Dursley was the chief of police in the small town of Hunting, Texas, which boasted a force of over a dozen officers. He was a ruddy, rectangular man, of the kind who was of an athletic build when he still worked the streets but had significantly grown since he was confined for most of his part behind a desk. Mrs. Dursley was a very thin, bottle blonde woman who had worked in a tall office building before having her son Dudley. Her days were mostly spent caring for the boy at home and, occasionally, going door to door in her neighborhood selling tickets for the policemen's raffle.

The Dursleys didn't hold with the superheroes. The _real _heroes, they liked to point out, were men and women who risked their lives on a daily basis taking care of the people in their communities. They wanted nothing to do with people who ran around making a mess of things in brightly colored underwear, and it was for precisely that reason that Mrs. Dursley hadn't spoken to the Potters for a great many years.

The one part of the lifestyle that Petunia Dursley agreed with at all, and only tentatively at that, was the fact that their kind found it necessary to build secret lives for themselves. Most people didn't even realize that superheroes were walking among them—and what did they think they did, bunk up together in a floating spaceship above the earth or something? It was only because her sister…her own _sister_…was a superhero that Mrs. Dursley knew anything about the secret lives of that lot.

Mrs. Potter and her husband were wealthy entrepreneurs. It made Petunia sick every time she had to admit to somebody that her sister was the driving force behind Potter Chemicals, Inc., and was likely a billionaire at this point (the company was just about to hit that mark last she heard of). If she were only rich, then perhaps Mrs. Dursley could have dealt with the problem. But it was what she did at _night_ that made her stomach turn.

It had been over ten years since White Seraph first appeared in the rougher neighborhoods of downtown Dallas. Petunia hadn't even realized it was her sister at first, not until news footage of the woman getting shot on TV happened to coincide with her sister coming over for dinner with her arm in a sling. Then two years later, when she married Potter, it all got worse. White Seraph (now with an arsenal of gadgets that Petunia later figured were bought with the profits from the business they started together) was on the news almost nightly, with a man the news took to calling the Stag, for his reported ability to transform into that animal.

In that time, the pair had grown to become the most popular superhero couple in Texas.

It was a gray morning that saw Mrs. Dursley staring out her kitchen window, somewhat distracted. Dudley was planted in front of the television as he ate his McDonald's breakfast, watching dazedly as a tall, shaggy puppet taught him how to count to 10. Mr. Dursley tousled the boys hair as he came into the kitchen. "Little booger," he said, shaking his head. "He'll be a fine cop one day…Petunia?" Noticing his wife was distracted, he said her name again, louder.

"Oh, sorry dear, I still haven't woken up yet," she said, forcing a smile.

"Hmm." He bent down and kissed her on the cheek. "Well, I've got to head out. Got a call from Hawkins, says John Franklin's boy is in for vandalizing the high school."

"Really?" said Mrs. Dursley. "I knew he'd turn out to be a hellraiser. John was too, back in the day."

"See you tonight," he said, kissing her again before heading out.

Mrs. Dursley sighed. A strange feeling had come over her. She didn't take stock in hunches, or instinct, but somehow she felt that something big was hanging in the air. She picked Dudley up from his high chair and flipped the channel to the local news before taking him to his playpen in the living room. She was just outside the kitchen when she heard snippets of whatever it was the reporter on the television was saying.

Doubling back, she froze in the kitchen and read the headlines.

**Attack on the Potter Estates: Whereabouts of White Seraph and Stag Unknown**

"Late last night," the solemn faced reporter said, standing outside the broken shell of what Mrs. Dursley recognized to be her sister's mansion, "the criminal known only as Voldemort laid siege on the home of local billionaires James and Lily Potter. It is not known at this time whether any of his known followers aided in the attack. Soon after the attack was over a rescue team was called in to search through the remains of the estate. The bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Potter were recovered along with the body of Voldemort. Though it is probable that the Potters were victims of the so-called 'killing curse' that Voldemort used, famously, in the massacres of several families over the past several years, authorities are as yet uncertain of the cause of the dark lord's demise. Authorities wish to find and speak to White Seraph and Stag, the most noted opponents of Voldemort. Although the actions of vigilantes have largely been overlooked by the general population, local police have said that illegal vigilante activity resulting in death will not be tolerated. I have with me…"

Mrs. Dursley turned off the television and stood for several minutes in silence, heart sinking into the pit of her stomach. Her sister and her good-for-nothing husband, dead? Was it possible?

The expected phone-call from her husband came not much later—over a hushed conversation they agreed it was for the best not to reveal her sister's secret identity. What use was there in connecting themselves to such infamous personalities after they had already died? It didn't matter if the person who had really killed them was still running around out there—Mrs. Dursley reminded her husband, with conviction, that the superheroes wouldn't think of letting whoever killed them off.

And what about the Potter's young son, Harry? He hadn't been found in the rubble.

Mrs. Dursley sighed. It wasn't their problem, she promised him, they'd never have to worry about the boy.

What Mrs. Dursley did not know, could not possibly have known, was that far away—much farther than she could imagine—a meeting of heroes was being held.

The man of steel paced across the length of the hall, much more agitated than anybody was used to seeing him. The others were silent, watching him and thinking. It was a dark day, much darker than any of them had seen in a very long while. Finally Kal-El paused, turning to look at the others.

"I see no other option," he said. "The boy must be returned to Lily's sister."

"Them?" said a tall woman with jet-black hair. "I heard James and Lily speak of them. I wouldn't turn over a _dog…"_

"Regardless of what, or who, they are, they are the only living relatives that the boy has now," said Kal-El. "Diana, don't fight me on this…"

The woman snorted, but said nothing else. A man in black, his face shrouded, stood up next. "Do you intend to shelter the boy, Diana?" he said. "I am forced to say I am in agreement with Kal on this. Amongst those who know he will be held above all others—famous before he can walk and talk. Even the Superman had a chance for a normal youth…"

"His parents were killed—he will never have a normal childhood. You would know something of that, Bruce."

"And perhaps he will not recover from that," he said. "But a life with the Dursleys—it is not ideal, but it is the only middle ground. He will know of his parents and their deaths, but only when he is old enough will he know of their secret identities."

"And of his power?" said Diana. "Is it not true that the death of Voldemort was his doing?"

The others were silent for a long moment. "Yes, I believe that," said Kal-El decisively. "With time he will need us. Until then, we will watch."

"And wait," said Bruce with moderate disdain.

Silence fell over the band for a moment. Finally Diana spoke. "He will go to the Dursleys, then. Where is the boy, Kal?"

"Zatanna has him. His father was a magic user, after all, and they were close. I will contact her. She will take him to his family."

On Hickory Street, a woman was standing on the corner of the street, quite unnoticed by the people who lived there. She was dark of hair and slight of frame, though there was something compelling about her—especially the look in her eyes.

She was standing there still when she saw a streak of red and blue in the sky. After a moment Superman landed beside her. "We have decided."

"I thought so," she said with a sigh. "Then it's true that Lily and James are dead. I knew they were—I felt it, somehow—but it's disheartening to think of this world without them."

Kal-el nodded, putting his head on Zatanna's shoulder. She looked stricken for a moment, managing after several minutes to pull herself together.

"Well, I suppose there's no use in standing here like this. We ought to take him to his new family." She put out her hands, closing her eyes—the ritual wasn't necessary, as those who knew her were aware, but it aided in her magic, especially at times like these when she was emotionally distraught, try as she might to hide it.

"Yob eht gnirb," she said. A moment passed and suddenly the child was in her arms, still as fast asleep as if nothing had transpired at all. Zatanna gently pushed the hair back from his forehead. "He will have this scar forever, Kal. I attempted to erase it with my magic, but…"

"It is probably best." Kal-el took the baby from her arms, nestling him against his steel chest. The baby cooed in his sleep without waking. "The scar will be a mark of his past—though it will give him pain, he will not forget the people who once loved him." He looked to the home that they stood in front of. "With any luck he will find a new home, a new family."

Zatanna shook her head. "It is not my habit to disagree, but I must remind you that not all humans are the Kents."

Kal-el shook his head. "Regardless," he said. He walked up to the front door.

"Perhaps it would be best to let them find him on their own," said Zatanna gently. He looked back at her and, after a moment, nodded. Sitting the infant down by the front door, he took a step back.

Zatanna knelt in front of the child, putting her hands on him. "Peels—gninrom litnu efas eb." A faint glow surrounded the boy. Then, with a sigh, Zatanna stood.

"We should go," she said. "The villains will be in an uproar to take Voldemort's place. I heard from Batman this morning that there were rumblings in Arkham, and that was when this whole mess was just a rumor."

Kal-el nodded. They left him there—him to sky and Zatanna into nothing.

And the boy laid on the stoop, charmed into sleep and completely unaware of the drastic turn that his life had taken. He did not know that he would awaken in the morning to the harsh scream of his aunt as she found him, or that the next week of his life would be spent alone, in the smallest room of the Dursley's house, barely spoken to or held. He did not know that he was a hero, however young that he may be, and while the world of man raised their glasses to White Seraph and Stag the heroes themselves rose their glasses to Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived.


	2. Welcome Salutations

**Harry Potter: A Brave Beginning**

**The Justice Academy of America**

**Author's Note: **I'm starting this story to continue what I hope to be a series of stories that retells the story of the boy-who-lived in several different ways. This is the second, the first being my story about Luna, A Prophecy Undone. I hope that you like this version and, no, before you say anything, I am _not _trying for strict canon.

**Disclaimer: **I do not claim any ownership of either the characters or plot from Harry Potter or any from the DC Universe.

**Welcome Salutations**

The afternoon sun had crept high into the sky. Hickory Drive was quiet and still—grown-ups had gone to work, kids to school, and the very young were being kept inside by stay-at-home parents. There was only one tiny buzz of activity on the street, in the form of a very young boy who was picking his way down the creek behind his house.

Harry Potter was fairly sure that his aunt did not know where he was. He was also pretty sure that she didn't care. He glanced at his watch—it was closing in on one o'clock. Right about now she was probably settling down in the living room for her favorite soap opera.

The small stream that ran behind his house had been his particular place since he was eight years old and his aunt and uncle pulled him out of school. With little else to do (he usually did all his schoolwork once a week, picking from the pile that his aunt left in his room to satisfy the board in control of home-schooling) he had explored every inch of it before he was ten.

His favorite time of year was the spring right before the other kids got out for school. Until then the old creek was his. As he sat down to have the lunch he'd packed for himself at his favorite point along the bend, he wondered if he'd spend his summer at home or if he'd be shipped off like he had been the summer before, to one of the camps they had set up for kids with 'special' abilities like his.

He hated the camps. For two summers running he'd had to work with every scientist, psychologist and counselor known to man, all of them trying to teach him to suppress the power he'd known was his since he was very young.

And that was, after all, the real problem he had with his aunt and uncle. He had been born different, and with the superheroes and villains spending days and nights in the evening news not everybody was keen on people who were different.

Harry had been threatened, on coming to realize that he had special abilities, with the possibility of being thrown out of their house. Not that he thought it would ever happen, not with the massive inheritance he'd received from his mother and father when they died. But all in all it was better to do what the Dursley's said. Besides, he thought a little glumly, he only had seven more years to worry about what they wanted. And then he'd be free to go off and do whatever he wanted.

Even become a costumed hero.

He laid back on the tall grass, arms crossed behind his head. It had been a dream of his, even before he realized that he had the powers to make it a reality. After all, his parents were killed by one of the villains that the superheroes themselves had fought. He liked to picture himself in a costume—had once been punished when an entire sketchbook of fantastic costumes had been found hidden beneath his bed. But more than anything he wondered what it would be like to fight alongside a hero like Superman, or to run alongside the Flash, or haunt the streets of Gotham City with the guy known as Batman.

Lazily, he lifted one hand in the air. "Fire," he said, as a ball of white flame sprung up from his fingertips. It was the first bit of magic he'd ever taught himself, the basics learned by scavenging time online when his guardians were nowhere to be found. "Ice," he said again, and the flames froze and fell from his fingers.

"Mom is gonna kill you if she finds you doing that freak stuff," said Dudley. Harry sprung up and turned around.

"What are you doing home?"

"It was an early day," he said with a shrug. Harry groaned. There was no way his cousin was going to let him off for doing magic. Not without a price, anyway.

"So, you going to tell her?" said Harry.

Dudley grinned, somewhat menacingly. "Well," he drawled. "Maybe I can let you go this one time…"

"If?" said Harry.

"If you'll take care of that thing I have to write."

"Your homework? Again?" Harry rolled his eyes. "Sure, why not."

Dudley grinned again. Ignoring his cousin, Harry laid back down on the grass. To his agitation the other boy didn't just go away, like he usually did. Dudley stood near him, saying nothing for several minutes. Finally Harry sat back up with a sigh.

"What else is it?" asked Harry.

"Well," said Dudley slowly. "I was just thinking that maybe I don't need you to help me with my homework. Maybe I can think of some _other _way for you to pay me back for being so nice to you."

Something sank in the pit of Harry's stomach. He got up to his feet, shoving his hands deep into his pockets to keep from hitting his cousin. "What is it?"

"I want a little extra spending money. I know you're able to get cash out of your trust…"

"I give most of it to your mum, to pay for taking care of me!" Harry said, astonished at his cousin's newfound gall. Somebody, one of his friends, had probably put him up to it.

"You can get more," whined Dudley. "Come on. Your parents were _billionaires."_

"And if I don't give it to you you're going to tell your mum I was out here using my powers?" said Harry. Dudley grinned again, and after a long moment Harry shrugged. "Fine, then. Tell her."

The smile faded from Dudley's face. "Yeah…okay. I guess I will."

Harry shrugged. He knew he'd probably get in major trouble, but it was better than giving in to his cousin's stupid demands. Dudley left, and when Harry finally headed home an hour later he wasn't surprised to walk into the kitchen and find his aunt, white-faced and nostrils flaring, waiting for him on the living room sofa.

"Dudley told me you were doing your little 'tricks' out by the creek," she said, her voice somewhat higher in pitch than usual.

"They aren't tricks," said Harry firmly. "I don't see what the big deal is. Most people don't mind superhumans…most people _like _them."

Mrs. Dursley's upper lip trembled visibly. "Well," she said after a long moment. "People are misguided. Superheroes cause more trouble than they're worth. If you want guidance take a good, long look at your Uncle Vernon. He puts his life on the line every day…"

Harry said nothing. After a little while he was excused to his room, where he would be confined for the rest of the day until his uncle got home and they could decide on a proper punishment.

Fairly certain that he had a few hours to himself without being bothered, Harry got to his knees and dug underneath his bed until he found an old shoebox. He pulled it out and fished through newspaper clippings and magazine articles until he found what he was looking for.

"Superman Defeats Mechanical Monstrosity," it read. The picture below it showed a pile of mechanical rubble and a man in red and blue who hovered in mid-air. Although he knew the story by heart he read it again, and then another and another, filling his mind with stories of his favorite heroes.

He'd be a hero someday, he was sure of it. But until he turned eighteen and had full control of the money his parents had left him he was stuck with the Dursleys, their stupid rules and their equally stupid punishments.

****

For using magic when he most definitely should not have been, Harry was confined to the house for the full first half of summer break. With little else to do, he spent his time plotting his escape from the house on Hickory Street, both possible and impossible. Mixed together were fantasies of running away in the night, living on his powers and reappearing for his inheritance when he turned eighteen years old, and realistic dreams of the house he would buy when he had a chance, far from the Dursleys. He toyed with the idea of moving to Metropolis, or Gotham City, and working alongside the big guns.

By the time his aunt and uncle relented, and he was allowed out of the house once again, his eleventh birthday was quickly approaching. Although he didn't have any particular reason to get excited—his family never honored the occasion—the fact that he was a year closer to his goal was cause for celebration in his mind at least.

When his birthday finally came, Harry couldn't help but be a little excited despite the fact that nobody else in his family really seemed to care.

Nobody even mentioned his birthday when he went down for breakfast that morning. His uncle was telling his aunt about a mugging that had taken place north of town, while Dudley had shoveled down his breakfast and was in the living room watching a rerun of his favorite reality TV show. Harry quietly piled what was left (not much) of the eggs and toast his aunt had made onto a plate and sat at the far end of the table.

"So Greg was on the radio calling for back-up, and now we're not sure where the perp ended up," finished Mr. Dursley.

Mrs. Dursley shook her head. "Well, I'm just glad that nobody got hurt," she said. "There sure are a lot of crazy people out there."

"Don't you know it," said Mr. Dursley.

Harry was halfway through his eggs when the doorbell rang. "I'll get it. On my way out, anyway." Mr. Dursley kissed his wife on the cheek and rose, disappearing through the short hallway that led to the front door. After a few moments he was back, frowning.

"Certified letter for the boy. He's going to have to sign for it."

Harry looked up. "Sign for what?"

"Just get to the door," his uncle growled. Harry left the table and went to the front door, where a harried looking postman was holding a thick envelope and a small digital device. Harry followed the man's instruction and signed the screen, taking the letter and closing the door behind him.

"Let me have that," said his aunt, "it probably has something to do with your trust."

"I want to look at it," said Harry, holding it protectively down at his side. "It's my letter!"

His aunt rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said smartly. "Go ahead. It's just a bunch of legal junk you probably won't understand."

Defiantly, Harry went to the living room and ripped the envelope open. But rather than the expected legal memos his aunt had predicted, a thick packet of papers fell out, accompanied by a small metal disk.

Harry picked it up, staring at the engraving across the front. "_JLA?" _he mouthed to himself.

"Are you done?" his aunt said from the next room. "I'll need to go over that."

"It's not from the trust," Harry called back. "It's just…uh…somebody sent me a card for my birthday. That's all."

"Your birthday?" Mrs. Dursley followed him into the room, arms crossed across her chest. She narrowed her eyes. "Hmm. I'd almost forgotten about that. Who sent it to you?"

"Mrs. Bishop," he said, saying the first name that came to mind. Mrs. Bishop was a pucker-faced, stern older woman he had only met a handful of times—she was also his parents' lawyer when they were alive and, as such, executor of his trust. The law offices of Bishop, Bishop and Prewitt had sent him a birthday and Christmas card for every year that he had been alive—usually they were the only ones to do so. Harry held his breath, hoping his aunt didn't realize that he had already received the annual card a week before.

"All right," she said finally, though there was still a tone of disbelief in her voice. "Stay around the house today. I have more important things to do than make sure you're keeping out of trouble."

Harry said nothing in reply. When she wasn't looking he picked the packet that had fallen on the ground up and slid it into his shirt. Dudley was too busy watching his television show to notice. Taking the stairs two at a time, he made it to his room and slammed the door closed behind him, pulling a chair up against it so nobody would bother him.

He glanced over the papers. The first page had his name across the top, a few lines of stuff that looked technical and he wasn't sure he understood, and beneath that several lines of writing that looked like a schedule of some kind.

_September 1-Arrive Justice Academy, Preliminary Testing and Assessments_

_September 2-Physical Combat Analysis, Orientation for Non-humans_

_September 3-5-General Orientation and Social Events_

_September 6-First Day of Classes_

There were several more lines like this. Harry set this section of the papers aside and looked at what lay beneath, finding something that looked like a boarding pass to Kansas, a list of required items (required for what?) and, at the very bottom of the stack of papers, a page headed by his own name.

**Potter, Harry**

**ID #:1873-7722**

**Class: Magic User**

**Brn. 1998**

**Parents: James, Potter (Class: Magic User) and Evans-Potter, Lily (Class: Human)**

_**Potter, Harry: Shows a marked ability with magic, incantations. Heritage indicates potential shape-shifting abilities. Raised by Dursley, Vernon and Dursley, Petunia (Class: Human) who have no known abilities. Guardian Dursley, Vernon is Chief of Police.**_

_**Potter is recommended for admission into the Justice Academy of America. **_

There was more written on the page, but the only other thing that caught his eye was the handwritten scrawl at the bottom. "We would be proud to have you join us. Please respond promptly," he read aloud.

"What is the Justice Academy?" he said out loud. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small disk that had been included in the letter. He looked it over, finally noting that there was a small, shiny spot on the bottom of it. He touched it and suddenly a hologram, like nothing he'd ever seen before except in movies appeared. He set it down quickly and leaned in to see the image.

Floating in midair was a perfect image of Wonder Woman. "I would like to formally congratulate you on your admission to the Justice Academy of America. Unceasing in our search for brave and talented young souls to join us in our quest for truth and justice, an Academy was created for the soul purpose of training those deemed worthy. Contained within your packet you will find all the information that you will need to attend. You will also find a short synopsis detailing your reason for admittance. No reply is necessary, and we look forward to guiding you in a glorious new future."

The image disappeared, and Harry was left in shock. Had he really been recruited? And by the Justice League, no less?

He was so shocked that it took him several minutes to notice that the synopsis of his abilities had pointed out that his father was a magic user, just like he was.

He hid everything away—his aunt and uncle would never let him go—and began to think. Somehow, he had to get on the plane on September first.

And the Dursleys couldn't know about it.


	3. Runaways

**Harry Potter: A Brave Beginning**

**The Justice Academy of America**

**Disclaimer: **I do not claim any ownership of either the characters or plot from Harry Potter or any from the DC Universe.

**Runaways**

Harry was laying in his bed, listening to his own breathing in the silence of the house. In a room somewhere nearby he thought he could hear his cousin snoring in his bed—a little way down the hall he knew his aunt and uncle were sound asleep. If his plan were to work he would have to be as quiet as possible. There was no way he was going to miss the plane—he wasn't exactly sure where he was going, but anywhere had to be better than stuck with the Dursleys.

The one thing that Harry had learned how to do, and do well, by living with the Dursleys was keep a secret. Since he had received his letter he had been planning his escape, down to sneaking off to the local library to use the internet. He knew, for example, that he could catch a bus at six in the morning that would take him into Dallas, where he would catch a second bus that would take him to the airport. The only catch was getting to the nearest bus stop—city transit didn't go as far as his small town.

Of course, he had a solution for that too. He looked over at the digital clock just in time to see it flash to three o'clock. He sat up and stood, crossing to the door and opening it just far enough to peer outside. Hearing his cousin snoring and, distantly, his uncle too, Harry crossed back to his bed and picked up the large duffle bag that he'd packed just after the rest of the house went to sleep.

He left the room, and as quietly as he was able Harry went down the stairs and into the garage by way the small hallway off the main room. Inside he was faced with two cars. There was the family car, a bright red SUV coated with a fine layer of dust, and Mr. Dursley's police car. Harry looked around one final time, then slid his uncles keys out of his pocket.

Opening the garage door manually, to avoid too much noise, and unlocking the cruiser, Harry slid behind the driver's seat.

He had never driven in his life—not even in the parking lots around the high school, like Mr. Dursley had done before with Dudley. But he figured he knew enough about the basics to get himself down the highway and up into town, where he could catch the first bus.

Starting the motor and putting the car in gear, he lurched forward—he needed to reverse, he thought with a groan, he'd put it into drive instead. The car had moved straight into his uncle's tool chest, and there was a large scratch across the hood where something had fallen onto it. Already afraid he'd made too much noise, he backed out quickly, and turning out onto Hickory Street he drove out of the neighborhood and began navigating the tangled web of streets in his hometown.

He managed well enough—although he would recount with embarrassment some time later that two mailboxes and a rusty old Ford F-150 came out worse for the wear after. The highway was virtually empty. It amused Harry to note that the handful of cars that came zipping down the road after him would all slow down immediately on spotting the police car.

By the time he got to the bus depot and paid his ticket, it was barely four o'clock. Suddenly aware of how desolate the station was, and that he wasn't in the best of neighborhoods, he took a seat on a bench that was bathed in the fluorescent glow of the streetlight. Every few minutes he would anxiously check his watch—his uncle was supposed to wake up right around the time the bus was scheduled to arrive, and he was a little worried about the chance he might wake up early.

"What you waitin' on man?" Harry glanced up to see a boy about four or five years older than him walking his way. Back in the shadows he could see that the boy was flanked by two others.

"Bus," said Harry shortly. He pushed his duffel bag with his foot so that it sat beneath him.

"Bus don't come for a while, man. You need a ride somewhere?"

Harry shook his head nervously. "I'm waiting with my dad. He's a cop," he said. The boy looked over at the cruiser, which Harry had left halfway across the parking lot so that it couldn't be seen from the street.

"Dad just left you here? This isn't a safe place for a kid, bro."

His friends came up and joined him, and they began to laugh as if at some joke that Harry didn't quite understand.

"He'll be back soon," said Harry.

"Well maybe we should wait with you. M'name is Mike." The boy sat down next to Harry. "Hey, you going on a trip? What's in the bag?"

"It's just school stuff," Harry mumbled.

"School stuff? You must be like…dedicated or something," he said with a smirk.

Harry shrugged. The boy was making him uncomfortable, and he was certain that there was something up with the friends who had yet to say anything.

After a little while the boy glanced down at his cell phone. "Been a while, sure your old man is coming round?" said the boy.

"He's probably just busy," said Harry. "He wouldn't like me hanging out with strangers. Maybe you should go."

The boy began to laugh. "Man, you ain't no good at this lying thing," he said. "Now I'll tell you what I think…I can spot a snot-nosed little runaway from ten miles away. And I won't report you to the cops if you'll let me have a look at that bag there, bet I could find something what would make my silence worthwhile."

"No!" Harry jumped up, grabbing his bag. The boy jumped up too, pulling out a short knife.

"You better do what I say, brat." The friends were swooping in after him. Harry slid the duffel bag over one shoulder, putting out his hand. For the first time he felt apprehensive about his magic—he'd never used it for anything important and wasn't certain he could manage anything that would save his life. But he knew that if he at least _scared _he might have a chance to scare them away.

"Fire!" he yelled. A small ball of blue flame appeared in his hand. The boy, who had started toward him, suddenly stopped.

"What the hell…" the boy started.

"I'm a super," said Harry. "I can do all kinds of magic, some I bet you'd never even think of!" He willed the fireball bigger, and threw it at his feet. The boy leapt back.

"Jeez, what kind of freak are you?" he said. His friends had already turned and ran and he took off after them without looking back. Harry waited several minutes before sitting back down. He stared at the round black scorch mark on the ground until six finally rolled around and he got on, sitting at the front of the bus and looking outside as the sky began to lighten.

He was largely ignored during the ride. He transferred once, and finally arrived at the airport an hour and a half before his plane was scheduled to depart. He went through security (holding his breath that the metal disk he'd received wouldn't trigger the metal detector, releasing it when it didn't), and following instructions got in line after line, until finally he was led to the gate where he would wait until his plane began to board.

There were only a handful of other people there. Harry sat next to the most unassuming of these, a young girl with her nose buried in a very plain-looking book. "Hello," she said without looking up. Harry greeted her in reply and took a seat, glancing toward the long window and the runway outside.

"You're Harry Potter, I suppose," said the girl. Harry glanced up in surprise.

"Erm…yes. Do I know you?"

The girl shook her head, and set the book aside. She smiled when she looked over at him, her round face framed by wildly curled brown hair. She put out her hand for him to shake. "I'm Hermione Granger. I've seen pictures of your mother and father. Given that they were superheroes and you're of an age to begin training at the Justice Academy I had figured you would be on the same flight as me, unless your aunt and uncle had moved you away from the greater Dallas area."

"Wait…what?" Harry was confused by at least three things that the girl had said. "What do you mean my parents were superheroes?"

"Oh. White Seraph and Stag. Lily and James Potter. Elementary, really, I always wondered why the local authorities didn't figure it out a long time ago. But logically one can assume that…"

"You really think my parents were superheroes? Like, had magical powers?"

"Not your mother, obviously, but Stag was a _shapeshifter." _The girl paused. "Do you mean to tell me that you didn't know this either?"

"Apparently not." Of course, Harry wasn't certain he believed it. "So you're going to the school to? Let me guess, you have superhuman detective abilities?"

The girl laughed and shook her head. "Oh no, nothing like that. I'm just good at learning things…and I'm really good with computers. I spent the first half of summer trying to figure out which college I was going to go to, you know. If I hadn't gotten the letter for the Academy I think I would have taken the scholarship to UCLA..."

"College?" Harry wondered at that. "How old are you?"

"About your age. I turn twelve next March. I was in an accelerated program—I just graduated high school a few months ago."

"So you're a genius," said Harry

"Something like that," said Hermione. Harry glanced down at the book she had been reading. It was titled _A Guide to Interspacial Relationships in the Time Continuum. _

"Do you really get that stuff?" Harry asked.

"Better than I understand a lot of things…like why that stupid Hannah Montana show is so popular," she said with a giggle.

Harry laughed. "Yeah, I don't get that either." He sat forward. "So you don't have a real super ability or anything. You're just…smart?"

"Well…" Hermione furrowed her brow. "I wasn't ever really certain until I got my letter. I just sort of…understand things. Especially numbers and equations…that stuff is easy. But there's another part of it to. I can almost understand computers…that sounds weird," she added, apologetically.

"I guess I get it," said Harry slowly. "It isn't any weirder than being able to spout fire whenever you want to," he added.

"Hmm…so you're a magic user? I supposed you would be. I'm kind of interested in studying magic—I've always wondered if it has any practical applications in the real world. There are some theories that suggest..."

Harry Potter tried his best to pay attention to what she was saying as she went off on some sort of complicated theory about magic, science, and who-knew what else. But by the time she had finished his head was swimming. Thankfully, a flight attendant was calling them row by row to board the plane. He was pleased, despite the fact that he knew he'd spend the flight learning theories on Quantum Magic Interspacial Studies (or something like that), to find that he was seated right next to Hermione.

With his seat next to the window, Harry was able to watch the flurry of activity that preceded liftoff. On his left side, Hermione had suddenly stopped talking and had gone pale, fingers digging into the armrest.

"So why didn't your parents come with you? You know, to see you off?" Harry asked.

Without opening her eyes, Hermione replied, "I asked them not to."

Harry was going to ask something else but the plane was jettisoning down the runway. He watched as the cement began to streak past them and then they lifted off into the sky. Not a word was said until the ground had shrunken below them and fluffy white clouds began to float at eye-level. As the seatbelt sign flickered off and a flight attendant began to walk down the aisle offering drinks and snacks, Harry glanced over at Hermione. She had regained some of her color, but still looked a little sick.

"I'm a little afraid of heights," she explained.

"So why didn't you want your parents here?" he asked.

"Oh…that. Well, you know how I told you about that scholarship to UCLA?" Harry said that yes, he remembered. "I'm supposed to be heading there for my orientation. My parents don't dislike superheroes—but they're pacifists. They think if I go to the Academy I'll end up designing weapons of mass destruction, or working for the CIA…something like that."

"And are you going to tell them?"

"I will," said Hermione. "But only after I've been there long enough to know what it is I want."

They spent their time on the flight going over their respective histories—Harry told her all about the Dursleys, and what he knew about his parents and their company, and Hermione explained that her parents were reporters for an anti-war magazine who spent more time at protests and rallies than at home with their daughter.

By the time the seatbelt light flashed back on and the flight attendant began to go over landing procedures, Harry felt as if he knew Hermione better than he'd ever known anybody back home. They stopped talking—Hermione seemed to have remembered that she hated landing in an airplane as much as she hated taking off. The plane thudded and shuddered as it came in for a landing. Harry glanced over and saw that his new friend's eyes were firmly shut until they came to a complete stop, at which point she took a deep breath and sighed.

The pair waited until the rest of the plane had exited before leaving. They were just outside the gate when they saw a man with a sign that had their names on it. Hermione took Harry by the arm and gestured to it. Together they made their way over and introduced themselves to the man.

"Potter and Granger, good to have you aboard," he said, extending his hand for them to shake. "I'm Mr. Allen. On behalf of the Justice Academy, I'd like to say I'm pleased to meet you."


	4. Trials and Tribulations

**The Justice Academy of America**

**Disclaimer: **I do not claim any ownership of either the characters or plot from Harry Potter or any from the DC Universe.

**Trials and Tribulations**

Harry and Hermione were led to a sleek black car and seated in the back. "I look forward to seeing you again," said Mr. Allen with a smile as he closed the door on them. He began to leave and then stopped, leaning inside the open window. "I just wanted to say that I knew your parents, Harry. They were good people. I'm sure you'll make them proud."

"Thank you." Harry turned to buckle his seatbelt. By the time he turned back around, the man had gone.

"That was fast," said Hermione, who had been busying herself with securing her own bags in the seat beside her.

"Probably has other students to pick up," said Harry. He leaned back in his seat, glancing at the man in the front seat. A hat was pulled low over his forehead, but he could see the man's blue eyes glinting in the rearview mirror. "Is the school close to here?" Harry asked.

The man chuckled. "In a way, yes," he said as he pulled away from the curb and began navigating the parking lot. "My name's Artie," he said. "I got a son starting at the Academy this year. Got three more enrolled and two graduated. Daughter going to start next year."

"Are you a super?" asked Hermione with marked interest.

Artie chuckled. "Never really had the power to make a big name for myself. I've worked with some of the best though, and they keep me on at the Academy."

"What can you do?" asked Harry.

"Me?" said Arthur. "Nothing much. Got a way with mechanical things, is all. Now my wife Molly, she's really something special. An empath."

They had hit the highway. Artie was recounting—from personal experience in many cases—stories about the superheroes, and all the while the buildings and cars that they had seen in abundance were beginning to disappear, giving way to long stretches of fields.

"Why would they put a school out here?" Harry asked aloud after a while.

Artie chuckled. "Long story about that, and if you keep with the superhero business you may hear it. Anyway, that's not mine to tell. There you are, we're getting close. See that sign?"

Harry and Hermione both craned their necks to spot the large sign that had been posted alongside the road.

**Smallville **_**Pop. 7,093**_

They turned off at the first exit, and gradually signs of a decent sized town began to sprout up around them. "Why don't we stop, have a little lunch?" said Arthur, glancing down at his watch. "You may not get a chance once you get to the school. Come on, my treat."

They pulled into the parking lot of a small diner. Although small, the place was very tidy. A waitress in a neat blue uniform led them to a booth in the back, leaving them with their menus. "Next best thing to my own wife's cooking," said Artie.

After a little browsing, Harry settled on a cheeseburger, curly fries and a root beer float. Artie ordered a steak, and Hermione after some debate decided to have a salad and a diet coke. It didn't take long for their food to arrive, and the trio dove in.

"Does the school employ many drivers?" asked Hermione after a few minutes. "I didn't expect to have a personal escort today."

"Well…this is an unusual case," admitted Artie. "I expect most of the students arriving by plane will get a shuttle there."

"Then why us?" asked Harry.

"I expect it's because you're a billionaire," said Hermione. "I suppose I just got to take the car because I'm along for the ride."

Artie grinned. "Well, beats the bus," he said. "Plus, you get here early enough you get settle in a little."

They finished up their meal. On the way out, Harry paused by the front wall. There were dozens of photographs lining the walls, mostly of people from the town though there were a few of some minor celebrities and superheroes who had visited the town over the years. "That's my mom," said Harry, pointing to a picture of his mother standing next to a tall man with dark hair and glasses.

"Well, how about that," said an older waitress. She crossed over to where they were standing. "Lily Potter, isn't it? That was a real tragedy," she said when Harry nodded. "That man standing next to her is Clark Kent. Born and raised in Smallville, went on to become a big city reporter in Metropolis."

Harry barely had time to wonder what his mom had ever been doing in Smallville before Artie was ushering him and Hermione outside and back into the car. It was a fifteen minutes drive to the other side of town. Artie finally pulled into a wide drive. A gate blocked their way. Artie rolled down the window and leaned over to a small square monitor. On a small bronze plaque beside them was engraved, _Smallville School for the Gifted._

"_Name?"_

"Arthur Weasley."

There was a long pause. Finally, the voice crackled back over the speaker _"Voice recognized, access granted." _

The gate slid open soundlessly. Artie pulled in and drove towards the huge red brick mansion that appeared before them as the gates closed back behind them. He went right up to the front doors. "You go on in. I'll have your things sent up to your rooms."

Harry nodded. He went up the short stairwell and through the front door, which was wide open. Directly inside there was a small table with a computer and, behind it, a young woman. Hermione went to the table first.

"May I have your name please?" Hermione gave it to her, and after a little tapping on the keyboard scribbled something on a small slip of paper.

"Your room number is written on here. Your scheduled assessment time is also included. You are expected to arrive in the main hall five to ten minutes before your tests are to begin." She reached into the box beside her and pulled out a small booklet. "A map of the school is on the back page. Please feel free to go to any place within the school barring those marked on the map as prohibited or to dormitories of the opposite gender after visiting hours."

Hermione took the paper and the book, and Harry stepped up after her.

"Name?"

"Harry Potter."

The woman paused, looking closely at him. Then she smiled broadly. "Of course, I should have seen the resemblance." She gave the same speech to Harry, then paused before giving him his things. "I knew both you parents, Harry. It's an honor to have you here."

"Er…thanks." He took his things, and walked with Hermione down the hall until they were forced to part ways.

His room was located on the third floor of the building. He found a large stairwell and took it to his floor, navigating to the wing where his room was located. When he got there the door was already wide open. One side of the room was bare, while the other was already covered with scattered clothes, posters, and handfuls of CDs and DVDs that he supposed would eventually be stacked on the yet-to-be assembled shelves that would house the large television that was already blaring.

A tall, thin boy with red hair was stretched out on the bed, facing away from the door.

Harry knocked. The boy's head spun around and, seeing Harry standing there, he jumped up. "Hey, man."

"Hey." Harry walked inside. "Looks like we're going to be roommates."

"Cool." The boy stuck out his hand. "My name's Ron. You're here kind of early, aren't you?"

"I had a ride here," Harry explained. Since his bag was still missing, he sat down on the edge of his bed. "What about you?"

"My dad works for the school. They let me bring my stuff in last night. Figured I could get things the way I like it before somebody messes it up…no offense."

"None taken," said Harry. "So your dad works here?" Harry took note of the red hair. "Do you mean Artie?"

Ron's eyebrows raised. "You already met him? Oh, I get it," he said, thumping himself on the forehead as if he should have figured it out sooner. "You're the Potter kid. Well, it's cool meeting you. What time is your testing?"

Harry glanced down at the slip of paper. "Three o'clock. I guess I have a couple of hours."

"Mine's at two-thirty. I'll tell you, I'm not looking forward to the physical assessment." Ron grimaced. "They really put you through the ringer, here."

"Yeah?" Harry looked the boy over, wondering what his powers could be. "So…what exactly do you do?"

Ron flushed a little then and Harry wondered if he should have asked. "Well, it runs in the family but we're all different. My mom's an empath, and dad can work with metal and stuff…my older brother Bill can shield things, and Charlie talks to land animals. Percy kind of got shafted—he's kind of a finder of things, if that makes sense. The twins can mess with time…that gets really annoying." He grimaced. "And my little sister is a speedster, like the Flash."

"And you…?"

"Well, I can breathe underwater. And…I can understand things down there."

"Seriously?" said Harry.

"Yeah. Would never have figured it out if my brothers hadn't throw me out into Smallville lake. Mum like to threw a fit when I didn't surface, until she got the sense that I was still alive even though I'd been under a few minutes. I was five or six."

"I think it would be cool to come from a family like that," said Harry.

"Yeah, sometimes," said Ron, as if he weren't convinced. "Hey, you want a tour of the school? I can set this stuff up later."

Since he didn't have anything else to do, Harry agreed. He and Ron left the hall. The door across the hall was open and they stopped by. A boy was standing just inside. Ron and Harry greeted him.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Neville Longbottom." He extended his hand to them.

"What are you here for? I'm a magic user and he talks to fish," said Harry, meriting a friendly nudge from Ron.

"I'm just…here. I don't really have any powers, but Mr. Wayne thinks I have potential. He wants to train me up a bit."

"Mr. Wayne?" asked Harry.

"A fellow billionaire," joked Ron. "He's a patron of the school." They invited Neville along but he declined. There weren't any others on their floor, but on the second floor they ran into Hermione and her roommate, a girl with wavy platinum hair and gray eyes named Luna Lovegood.

They left them to get acquainted. After a while, Harry remarked on the fact that there were no classrooms, as he had expected. Ron explained.

"It would be too conspicuous to have classes down here," he said. "There a handful of rooms on the bottom floor—philosophy, ethics, math, and stuff like that. But most of the classes are up on the satellite. There's a teleporter in the main hall—you'll get to go up later. That's where they do testing."

"A satellite? Like up in space?"

"Where else?" He showed Harry the large indoor swimming pool, explaining that it was connected through underwater channels to Smallville Lake. Through a back window they could see a large stadium protected by a tall stone wall that made it impossible to see what was going on inside. Harry figured that this was where they did a large part of the physical training.

They ran into Ron's brothers. As they were going down the corridor Harry suddenly saw a flash coming toward him—a flash that slowed down to a tall, redheaded boy running at normal speed as he and Ron suddenly slowed until they could no longer move. Then another redheaded boy appeared and they were moving at normal speed.

"Funny, idiots," said Ron.

"You have the word buttface written on your forehead," pointed out Harry.

As Ron excused himself to a nearby restroom to wash his face off, the twins introduced themselves to him. He made a note to check himself whenever they were around. As the time of Ron's appointment neared other students were beginning to arrive. Harry went with him to the main hall and sat down at a table as Ron followed instructions and stepped up onto the teleporting, disappearing with a flash into nothing.

He was waiting for his time to go when he saw a young boy with blond hair enter the room. The boy spotted him and crossed the room. "Do you know where any of the staff is besides the one running the table outside?" He spoke with a marked British accent.

Harry shook his head. The boy sighed. He eyed Harry after a moment, extending his hand. "The name is Draco Malfoy."

Harry introduced himself. A look came over the boy's face. "So you're the rich boy," he said with a smirk. "What do you do again?"

"I'm a magic user," said Harry. There was something about the expression on the boy's face that he wasn't fond of, though he couldn't exactly figure out what that was. "How about you?"

"What I am is none of your business. Not yet, anyway," he said. Harry's skin began to crawl. He glanced down at his watch and seeing that it was closing in on three he excused himself. He gave his name to the younger man standing near to the mechanism, who let Harry step up onto it. He was surprised at how little he felt as he was jettisoned upward into space—as if for just a moment he was made of air, before becoming solid again.

He appeared in a wide space. A man standing nearby asked for the paper he'd gotten when he'd arrived—he handed it over. After a moment he was sent down a short hall to the first room on the right, where he was instructed to wait. He sat in silence for several minutes—the room was completely empty. After a while he heard footsteps coming toward him and turned to the door. The girl he had met earlier, Luna Lovegood, entered and sat down nearby. "Hello," she said, smiling at him. "So you're a magician too?"

Harry nodded. The girl closed her eyes and reached into the pocket of the short jacket she was wearing. After digging for a moment, she pulled out a small white rabbit. "It's not a very hard trick, you know. You just have to find what you're looking for." She bent over and kissed the rabbit, and it shrank and began to glitter until it was a small silver pin. She tacked it onto her lapel.

"You're really good," he said in wonder.

Luna shrugged. "Perhaps."

They were interrupted by the sound of a metallic scraping. A door opened up on the far side of the room. Standing there was a woman with long dark hair, dressed in something resembling a stage magicians outfit. She bowed a few inches. "My name is Zatanna Zatara. If you'll come with me, Harry, we'll get some basic testing out of the way."

They went into a small room. There was nothing inside, apart from a small white table and two chairs. Zatanna sat down at one and gestured for Harry to take the other.

"Why are you in costume?" he asked, immediately regretting the question. To her merit, the woman smiled.

"It's my old stage costume. I still wear it when I'm helping the League. But it's standard for us to wear our costumes in any official capacity. You'll receive a uniform, after a fashion, before the week is out." She laid out a file and read through it for a few minutes. "All right, Harry. Let's get started. Tell me, what can you do?"

"Uhm…well, I can make fire. And ice. I've turned things to stone before but I don't know how I did it."

Zatanna was nodding. "So basic elemental powers. That's a decent start. Do you mind showing me?"

Harry took a deep breath. "Fire!" He reached out his hand and for a second blue flames appeared in his palm before sputtering out. He shook his head and refocused—finally they appeared like they usually did. He repeated the exercise with ice, with a similar result.

"Hmm…" Zatanna said. "Now I have a quick suggestion. Although it isn't necessary, as you see, sometimes reciting incantations backwards can help you focus your powers. Let me show you."

She put out her hand. "Elabt eht no srewolf." A bouquet of cheerful daisies seemed to leap from her wristband and into her hand. She pulled a vase from her other cuff and set it in the middle of the table, arranging the flowers. "Do you want to try?"

It took Harry a moment to sort it out. Then, palm upright, he recited "Erif!" and flames shot from his palm, startling him with their ferocity.

"Excellent!" She made a note of something. "Now, standard telepathic exercises." She pulled out a stack of banded playing cards. "Just tell me the first thing that pops into your head."

For fifteen minutes they ran through them, shuffling and restarting when they had gone through the entire deck. "Not your strong suit, but there's some ability there," she said, making another note. "You have a strong intuition."

They did several more exercises, some of which made very little sense to Harry. About an hour had passed when Zatanna announced that her portion of his testing was finished. He went back through the small room, giving Luna a small wave as he was escorted down another long hall to a medical office, where he was instructed to sit on top of a long table and left alone for several minutes before a doctor walked in.

"Afternoon, Harry. We're going to run a few tests to assess your physical capabilities." He was checked from head to toe, just like any other doctors appointment. Then he was led to an adjoining second room, which was filled with equipment, from recognizable things like treadmills and weights to other things that looked like medieval torture devices.

By the time he left that room, an hour later, Harry was more exhausted than he'd ever been in his entire life. He'd gone through test after test, running, lifting weights, jumping, and punching, all while the doctor had said nothing and made note after note on the file he was carrying.

The last portion of the assessments took place in a small room that was much more comfortably decorated than the rest of the satellite.

"This is a psychological assessment," said the woman who greeted him. "Anything we discuss will be kept strictly confidential. I only report on what I believe to be your capability to deal with the situations that may present themselves in the course of your work here at the academy."

Harry was seated on a sofa. For a half hour he was forced to describe everything about his life with the Dursleys—omitting, of course, the details of his departure from them.

When everything was done he returned to the school. Ron was sprawled out on his bed, half-asleep. He was soaked from head to toe. "Hey, you back?"

"Yeah." Harry stretched out on his own bed. "That was tough."

"You tell me," said Ron. "They made me do laps in the pool down here before they let me go. I'm ready for dinner."

Harry looked over at the clock. It was after seven. "We eat at eight?"

"Yeah. I'm going to put on something dry. Why don't we go on down?"


	5. The Future of Justice

**The Justice Academy of America**

**Author's Note: **Sorry it's been a bit of a longer break between chapters this time. A lot going on, despite the fact that this is summer and theoretically I haven't much to do. I'll be getting into a little more of the action later...and feel free to make any suggestions or guess anything that could happen. I promise, if I steal your idea I do it in good faith :)

**Disclaimer: **I do not claim any ownership of either the characters or plot from Harry Potter or any from the DC Universe.

**The Future of Justice**

The main hall was already half-filled when Harry and Ron arrived. After a few minutes searching Harry spotted Hermione and Luna at a table near the front of the room. Luna saw him first and waved them over. Hermione smiled. "Good to see you again. Did your testing go well?"

Harry sat down next to her. "Guess I'll find out later," he said absentmindedly.

"I think I did well, although I probably bungled the section on Quark Mechanics. I'm pretty sure I got the sixth law wrong, although if the test was written using Nagasaki's theorem rather than Baener's…"

"Hey, Neville!" The boy from the room across his sat down next to Luna, leaning across the table to shake his and Ron's hand.

"Hey, how'd everything go up there?" asked Ron.

"Okay, I guess. I spent most of my time running combat simulators." He rubbed his shoulder, grimacing.

Before dinner started, three others joined their table to fill it completely. There was Dean Thomas, a black boy from New York, who was born on a planet in a different solar system and had come to earth as a refugee from his home planet, ravaged by war. He had been chosen to one day return to his home world as a member of the Green Lantern Corp., although he had very few powers of his own (apart from the shape shifting ability that allowed him to grow up on earth).

Another boy named Seamus Finnigan had come to Kansas all the way from Ireland. He was a magic user also, though he only had access to his powers through one of seven crystal wands passed through his family for generations. "Me mum was a sorceress and me da was a city manager. Had a right surprise when she decided to show him what she was—after the wedding!"

The last person to join them was a girl named Susan Bones. She was a tall girl with a long, chestnut braid down her back. A distant niece of Oliver Queen, commonly known as the Green Arrow, she had received training at a young age and had been enrolled at the school the moment she was of an age to continue in that legacy.

There was a sudden hush among the student body as a bright light heralded the arrival of somebody at the head table. Most of the students, Harry included, gasped as Superman stepped forward, followed closely by Batman and Wonder Woman as well as several other superheroes that they recognized.

"Good evening. I would like to welcome our new recruits. I am Kal-El. You have been chosen to train here because you have shown great promise and ability. Over the next several years you will take part in exercises that will allow you to control what you have been given.

"Many of you will go on to lead your lives quietly. Others will choose to join us in our quest for justice. Whatever you choose in the end, we are proud to welcome you to the Justice Academy of America."

"What an amazing hologram!" Hermione whispered.

Harry, who had been paying rapt attention to the speech, had not noticed that the three superheroes were not real. But as Superman finished his speech, they faded away. Others, dressed in ordinary clothes, took their seats at the head table. Harry recognized the man who had met them at the airport among others.

"They're superheroes?" he whispered to Ron.

His friend nodded. "Of course. Mr. Allen there? He's the Flash. That's Susan's uncle, Mr. Queen—Green Arrow. That woman beside him is the Black Canary."

Ron went down the table. Harry had already met Zatanna, who was more or less something of an advisor to the magic users. There was a famous scientist, who was also the Atom, and at the end of the table the Elongated Man.

Finally, Ron pointed out a very plain, but stoic looking man who was seated at the center of the table. "He's acting Headmaster. Right now he's in his human form, but usually he looks…different. He's a Martian."

"Wait…" Harry turned his attention to the man at the table. "The Martian Manhunter?"

"John Jones," Ron affirmed. "Well, in Smallville he's John Jones. It's really spelt J'onn J'onzz," he said, rolling his eyes when Hermione corrected him on a few points of his spelling.

He was still trying to sort out which person was which when a metallic buzzing filled the air and a series of small flying saucers came from the area of the kitchen, one sitting in the exact center of each table. Seamus leapt across the table to whip the cover off the spread. Several serving dishes were filled almost to overflowing with all sorts of foods; some Harry had never even seen or heard of.

Deftly avoiding the curry (which Seamus gladly spooned a heaping of) and something that Hermione said was South American, and pronounced in a way he wasn't sure he was capable of pronouncing, Harry took servings of pot roast, grilled vegetables on skewers, and freshly made bread that put every dinner he'd ever had at the Dursleys' table to shame.

The conversation lapsed momentarily as everybody dove in, rising up only briefly before dessert creamy custard with berries) was served and the time came for the first dinner to come to a close. Now everybody in the room fell silent as J'onn J'onzz rose from his seat, stepping _through _the table to stand before them. As Harry watched a subtle shifting began to happen very quickly to him—before he had time to realize what was happening he had transformed to something closer to his native Martian appearance.

"Good evening to you all. I have little to say that has not already been said. I wish only to make a few announcements, as it is my duty. First, the town of Smallville is off limits to students in their first and second year unless they have special permission or leave under supervision. Second, those who have been granted an apprenticeship to acting superheroes must remember to make a notation in the hall of records before leaving and upon returning. Third…section Alpha 3 of the satellite is off limits to all students and personnel who do not carry the proper authorization. Those who do not follow this rule are subject to great bodily harm and immediate expulsion."

Harry glanced at the people around him to see if he was supposed to laugh or not—the towering green alien didn't seem like the type to make jokes.

"Now, the time has come for you to return to your chambers. Good evening all." J'onzz bowed his head and stepped back—taking that as their cue the entire student body rose amidst a great scraping of chairs. Harry waved at Susan, smiled at Luna, and said goodbye to Hermione as he and Ron followed Neville, Seamus and Dean to the corridor where they had their rooms.

Seamus and Dean had the room two doors down from Ron and Harry. But they didn't immediately turn in—instead, they walked down to Neville's room and turned in. After a few moments Neville stuck his head out and waved at them. "Hey, come on in! I have coke and chocolate."

"And a PS3," said Seamus reverently.

Harry and Ron turned in. Most of the rooms were doubles, but only one bed sat in the large space. In place of another bed was a large metal cabinet that housed computer equipment, communicators, other devices that didn't make much sense to Harry, and a brightly colored costume that made Harry's breath whoosh out of him in one go.

"Robin? _The boy wonder?" _

Neville flinched. "Not yet. That is, I haven't really been out with the Batman yet and I'm going to be the new Robin as soon as he thinks I'm ready."

"So you're from Gotham City?" asked Ron.

Neville nodded, then paused, then shook his head and paused again, finally shrugging. "I was born there, if that's what you mean. But I went to live with my grandmother until last year. Then I came back."

Harry didn't press, though something in the way that Neville told his story made him think that there was a bigger story in there somewhere. He took the glass bottle of coke that was offered him and sat down on the rug, watching as Seamus attempted to trounce Dean at Guitar Hero and failed miserably.

They were arguing about how it was _possible _that Dean could have gotten a perfect score on the hardest level, when he claimed never to have played before, that they heard footsteps come to a stop outside their door. They turned to see Draco Malfoy standing their, staring down his nose at them.

"You're making a terrible noise, and I shall have to find somebody to complain to if you don't stop."

"Liven up," said Ron, popping the top of a coke and handing it in his direction. "School doesn't start for a week."

Draco scowled at the proffered drink. With a shrug, Ron downed it in one chug. The boy crossed his arms and stared down at them. "I can't believe the riffraff they let into a school like this. This place is supposed to be for people with real powers…not sad metahumans that talk to fish…_aliens. _And powerless humans like you are going to be the death of superheroes. That's what my father always says. The only person in this room with even a trace of real magical heritage is you…don't you realize what you're doing Potter? You're ruining yourself with these people. You could be _better."_

"I could be like you, you mean?" said Harry. He stood up, crossing slowly to the door where Draco stood. Taking the knob firmly in hand he shut in on his face, drawing victory whoops from his flushed and red faced friends as they watched him.

Seamus let loose a stream of choice expletives to describe his feelings for the boy, Neville suddenly became very quiet, and Ron stood up and shook Harry's hand firmly. "You're cool, man, really cool," he said.

The party broke up when a half-hour later they were scattered by an android come to check on lights out. Harry and Ron went to their room, but did not immediately go back to sleep. Ron challenged and beat Harry at a game of chess, and Harry told Ron all about his wild escape in his uncle's cruiser before they finally bundled up beneath their blankets and fell into very deep sleep.

****

When a shrill hum filled the air the next morning, it took several moments for Harry to realize where he was. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, turned over to look for the flashing digital display of his clock, and only after noticing he hadn't set it up yet did he remember everything that had happened the day before and sat straight up.

He looked around the disheveled room, at his roommate who was half-awake and half hanging off his bed. "Hey, Ron?"

Ron mumbled something. Harry pulled off the covers and left his room to find the small bathroom down the hall, which was already steamy from the running showers. He tried not to draw too much attention to himself as he got ready, and managed to get away without speaking to anybody on his way out apart from greeting Neville as he passed him in the hall.

When he got back to his room, there were two thick envelopes stuck to the door with a metal clip, as well as a pair of cloth packages by the door. He ripped open the one addressed to him, finding a version of the white warm-up suit he'd seen on martial artists before.

"Morning." Harry tossed Ron's package to him across the room, where he was downing an entire can of coke in one swig.

"Did you look at your schedule for today? I'll bet we're in the same combat sim."

"Combat sim?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. Don't you remember the schedule?" Ron polished off the coke, and then moved on to a giant Snickers bar. "Prelim training yesterday and we spend today doing combat sims so they know where to place us. Designed by old Bats himself," Ron added.

Harry thoughtfully pulled open the envelope addressed to him, looking over the schedule for the day. He spent all the morning in the gymnasium housed in their dormitories, and then after lunch went up to the satellite to run through virtual training programs. While he was putting on the suit, his thoughts turned to the Caped Crusader.

"So is Neville really going to be Robin?"

Ron nodded. "Yeah, it looks like it."

"So, if that billionaire Wayne guy is the one who put him in here, and he's giving money to the school, is _he _the Batman?"

Raising his eyebrows, Ron turned to look at Harry. "I think so. You know, I never really thought about who Batman was" He shrugged, putting on his own outfit. He glanced at his schedule, then at Harry's. They would be spending the day together

Almost everybody they had met the day before was in their introductory martial arts lesson, even the girls (which made Ron turn a little pink in the ears). The exceptions to that were Dean, who had already taken part in a handful of battles and had some basic fighting skills, Luna, who declined to learn physical combat, and Susan, already a black belt. Harry learned the latter of these points from Hermione, who seemed somewhat in awe of her new friend's prowess.

To their dismay, Draco was a face in the crowd, and seemed to have made friends with a pair of heavyset goons who Harry was certain wouldn't hold back if they managed to get a punch in Harry's direction.

After several minutes of excited chatter, two people walked into the room. Harry recognized Mr. Allen from the airport right away—he was wearing red spandex shorts and a hoody with the flash logo on it. The other person he recognized only because Neville whispered something nervously to the others. It was the former Robin, the one whose place he was taking.

"Good morning, kids," said Mr. Allen. He waved at them. "This is the first day of the many butt kickings that you will receive at this school."

The students laughed nervously. Most of them knew that he wasn't joking.

"I'm not what you would call a formal martial artist. I'm here to make sure you all stay in line…spit out that gum, Miss Abbot."

Everybody whipped around to stare at a blonde girl who shrieked as Mr. Allen appeared suddenly behind her, hand and tissue outstretched. She spat out a wad of gum, and in an instant Mr. Allen was at a trashcan tossing out the chew, then back at the front of the room standing next to the other man, who was grinning widely.

"You can call me Mr. Drake," he said. Harry thought that the man didn't appear too much older than the oldest students at the school. "I'm an acrobat and a martial artist…first thing we're going to do is split you up into sections based on size and stature. After that, we'll rearrange you based on skill level."

Everybody stood around for a while as they were split into groups. Harry was somewhat relieved when Draco was pulled away from his much larger cronies, though he was a little disappointed to be in the same group as the shrewd-faced blonde boy.

He was in the group of mostly smaller students, which to his embarrassment seemed mostly to be made up of female students. When they were instructed to find a partner he immediately sought out Hermione, who with a wince that betrayed her apprehension went to stand opposite him.

Drake barked out orders and showed them what they were supposed to be doing, as Mr. Allen sped around the entire room quicker than anybody could see to be certain they were doing the right thing. He stopped by Hermione once, to correct her stance, and was forced to calm down a girl named Lavender when she shrieked out, having been struck in the nose by a girl with an unpleasant face named Pansy.

When they were rearranged, Harry fell firmly in the second set of people, which to his relief included Ron and Seamus. Hermione fell into the lowest group, while Neville moved up to the first.

During the second round of training, Mr. Allen bowed out of helping Drake with the examples and Neville joined him at the front of the room, looking vaguely uncomfortable although Harry couldn't help but be impressed by his friends skills, which were far beyond what he could possibly expected.

By the time they broke off for lunch, everybody was ready for a broke. Harry was rubbing his shoulder, sore from a mishandled flip, and Ron was a few inches shorter for the sore ribs Harry had given him.

"You looked good out there, Longbottom," said Ron as he sat down at their table.

"Yeah, well," said Neville. "I started training when I was about eight. Wasn't very good at it, either. I saved up my allowance to take extra lessons—I even took gymnastics class when they wouldn't let me take any more classes at the martial arts studio. My gran didn't know about any of it."

"Phew," Ron said. "Guess that's why you didn't even break a sweat today. Why were you even in there?"

Neville paused for a long minute. "Well…the advanced training is a lot more realistic. They tried me on it and I froze up. So we're working up to it."

Harry knew better than to press on and so, it seemed, did Ron. They enjoyed their lunch and the small break after, and then took the transporters up to the satellite, where they were ushered to a series of small dark rooms and separated into even small groups of five. Harry's included Ron, Hermione, Neville and a girl named Lavender Brown. They were third in line to enter the sim chamber, and waited for almost an hour before they entered the chamber. Drake's voice boomed over the intercom.

"All right, boys and girls. This is a simple exercise. It will appear to you as if you are in the middle of a city street. You will see, hear and feel everything as if it were really happening. I will remind you right now that it is not. It is impossible for you to be hurt and sensors are in place to prevent any of you from hurting one another. We ask that you do not use your powers during this simulation."

There was a moment of static and the voice clicked off. After a few moments a faint glow filled the room and suddenly they seemed to be standing in the middle of a street that might have been lifted from the small town Harry had grown up in. Hermione moved closer to him…Ron put his fists out at the ready.

A group of thugs came walking out of the darkness.

Lavender shrieked, her hands flying up with her fingers outstretched like daggers ready to claw at her attackers. Ron, Seamus, and Harry all went into some version of the defensive stance that they had just recently been taught. Neville, glancing around at the others, walked slowly to the forefront.

"Uh…what do you want?"

"Give me you money, punk." It was obviously a very primitive simulation.

"I don't have any," said Neville. Harry glanced over at Ron. Were they supposed to speak to the sim?

The thug growled and threw himself at Neville, who jumped aside. With the man flying directly toward him, Harry delivered what amounted to a fairly sound kick to his knee, while Ron elbowed him in the kidneys and sent him down to the floor.

"Make sure he doesn't get up!" shouted Harry to Hermione as another thug came their way.

"And what am I supposed to do?" she said anxiously.

Harry didn't notice what she did after that. Neville was taking out as many of the fake thugs as he, Seamus and Ron were able to as a group, and when Drake's voice came back over the speaker to end the session they were, if not bruised, very sore.

They went back to their rooms to rest before dinner, where they received a scorecard summarizing the events of the day.

"Works well in a group," read Ron aloud, "takes command well. Moderate physical strength and speed, which will probably increase with time due to the further improvement of metahuman abilities. Poor response time is noted. Guess I didn't do too bad. How are you?"

Harry's card indicated his speed, leadership, and ability to keep calm under pressure to be his best assets, where he was lacking in strength and apparently had tendency to act without thinking. He was surprised to see that anything was lacking in Neville's report—but there was an indication that he had difficulty with avoiding confrontation and did not work with the people around him.

Hermione got the poorest marks of the day—the only thing she did well in at all was perfect recall of the techniques she'd been presented, though she did not remember any of the practical application.

"So, what do you guys want to do tomorrow before the carnival?" Ron asked, as he took a helping of the chocolate cake that rounded up their dinner.

"Carnival?"

"Yeah. The getting to know each other part of orientation. It's the first time we'll really hang out with any of the older students, besides dinner." He glanced over his shoulder at his brothers—Harry figured it wasn't exactly something Ron looked forward to. "Would you like to go see my house? We aren't allowed to leave the grounds but it would be okay if my dad took us. I know he doesn't have anything else to do tomorrow…it's his day off."

"Sure, I'm up for it," said Harry. "What about you Hermione?"

She shook her head. "I wanted to reread Gregovitch's study of…"

"Okay, okay," said Ron with a wince. "Why don't you tell us all about it later, when my brains not hurting from the last time you lectured us on particle whatsits…"


	6. Neville

**********Author's Note**********

All right, first of all I want to say sorry that this isn't a proper update. I have another chapter _almost _ready to go but, in the way that these things usually go, I seem to have gotten a job this summer that decided to take over my life. Not necessarily a bad thing, of course, especially when I'm getting the sweet monies, but that does mean that to some it probably appears that I've abandoned this little story. That's not true, of course, and I have every intention of getting that next chapter posted sometime in the next week.

On a side note, about that sweet job, I'm a body artist and soon-to-be caricaturist at Six Flags Over Texas. So if any of you are in the area and happen to stop by...well, it would be awesome if you bought an ungodly amount of henna tattoos, but I'll settle for you telling me my story is awesome :P Look for the nametag that says Megan :D

Until I post again, here's a little one-shot.

*********************************

Neville didn't like the darkness. In fact, he hated it--and he'd never admit it, of course, especially with Bruce Wayne constantly watching him. The Batman rarely changed his mind, or second-guessed himself. This frightened the young boy even more, because even if he didn't think he believed in himself, there'd never be any way of convincing Mr. Wayne that his fear was too great or his cowardice too strong. It just made Mr. Wayne push him even further, as if pushing the limits of the young boy's terror would deaden him to it somehow. But that wasn't the case...

The mechanical whirring that preceded the arrival of the elevator brought Neville out of his reverie. He hit a button, flooding the so-called Batcave with light just as the shiny metal doors opened to reveal his mentor standing there, the butler Alfred close behind, as usual. Out of habit, Mr. Wayne scanned the room, alighting for a moment on Neville, whose wiry and muscled frame was shining with sweat.

"Hard at work, Master Longbottom?" asked Alfred.

Neville nodded. "I just finished my day's training," he said, glancing over at Mr. Wayne for...what was it, approval? The man nodded, then without a word took a seat in front of a large computer console.

"Do you require anything?" asked the butler.

"He should eat," said Mr. Wayne without looking at either of them. "A protein shake, some carbohydrates. You know, the usual." Alfred bowed, then reentered the elevator, leaving Neville alone. Neither of them spoke for several minutes. Neville was looking at the costumes that Mr. Wayne kept in clear glass cases--the original Robin, Batgirl before she became the Oracle--when Mr. Wayne spoke up.

"You seem uneasy, Neville." He turned, a little startled and intimidated to hear the man speak his name.

"Eh...I..." The desire to lie was right on the tip of his tongue, but a part of him knew that lying to a man like Bruce Wayne was pointless. "I guess I am, sir," he said.

"Hmm..." Mr. Wayne had turned around and was staring at him. The shadows pooled on his craggy face so that Neville could hardly see his eyes, something that made him feel even more vulnerable. "Why do you think that is?"

"Because I really don't know why anybody thinks I can do this," he said, before he could stop himself.

His skin crawled when a long silence stretched out between them. He anxiously wiped the sweat from his brow, staring at the black mass that was Mr. Wayne's face.

Finally, Mr. Wayne stood. "I have some things to attend to. You may return to the manor for the time being. Alfred should have a meal prepared for you by now. We will speak more later." Neville felt a little as if he had been slapped across the face--it was obvious that he was being kicked out, at least for the time being. A bit ashamed, he got into the elevator and returned to the elaborate interior of Wayne Manor, where he was no longer Robin--not that he was yet, anyway.

Alfred had set a place for him at the small table in the breakfast room, whose table was only slightly smaller than the long dinner table in the room adjacent. The butler was busying himself nearby. Neville downed his meal in a matter of minutes, and Alfred was on hand to take the plate the moment he was done. Neville laid his head down on the table, feeling sick and tired and agitated. When he heard footsteps again he was already prepared to tell Alfred he didn't need anything, but it was a different voice that greeted him.

"You look exhausted. Bruce really does like to put you through the trenches doesn't he?"

Neville's head shot up. He was suddenly looking at somebody he'd only seen in pictures--the first Robin, Dick Grayson, who was now a superhero in his own right--Nightwing.

"H-hello," said Neville.

"I was supposed to meet him but it looks like duty calls," said Dick, gesturing toward the window, where the sky had already grown black without him noticing. "Ah, well, I can stick around old Gotham until morning," he said. He took the seat next to Neville, and a few moments later Alfred had returned with a plate that he sat down in front of Dick.

"Fantastic! My favorite, Alfred," he said with a smile.

"I haven't been touched by senility yet. Of course I remember," he said with a curt bow.

"So," said Dick between bites, "how's it feel to be getting ready to take up the old red and green uniform?" he said. "Tommy found you, right? What's your story?"

Neville shrugged. "It was right around the time of the big Arkham riot nine years ago."

"Yeah," said Dick with a scowl. "Joker, Two-Face, Harley Quinn...they all managed to pull a runner. I had to come help with that."

Neville shook his head, feeling a heavy weight in the pit of his stomach. "Yeah. Well...my dad was a detective. My mom was a prosecutor, and the both of them handled the legal stuff last time Batman locked Joker up. Harley decided that maybe if something happened to my mom and dad, Joker would have a shot at escaping. So she made her way to my house with a bunch of his thugs..."

Dick cursed. "Yeah, I remember that," he said after a long moment. "The Longbottoms...dosed up with Joker Juice. Didn't kill them, but..."

"But they've been in a mental hospital most of my life," said Neville quietly. "Anyway, a few months ago Harley Quinn escaped with the Joker, but the Joker was put back behind bars. I don't know what I thought I could do, but I started sneaking out at night...thinking maybe I could find her..."

"Thinking maybe you could get yourself killed," said Dick with a shake of his head.

"Yeah," said Neville sheepishly. "One night I found her. But I didn't know that the Joker had managed to get out, too...so when I cornered her, they all just started laughing...I was fighting off these guys who had to be insane...laughing like crazy until suddenly there was this big black shadow and they all stopped thinking it was so funny..."

"Then Batman swooped in to save the day, that's usually how the story goes," said Dick, shaking his head.

"Actually...no," said Neville. "It was Robin...Tom. He pulled me out of there and brought me here. Told Mr. Wayne what he'd seen and once they'd heard my story Mr. Wayne called my gran and told her he had selected me for a prestigious scholarship to go to a school out of state, somewhere in Kansas. And that's when I found out about the Academy."

"So, this was two months ago?"

"Right after school let out," said Neville.

Dick whistled, clapping Neville on the shoulder. "The Academy...and the new Robin, too. Sounds like you're going to be a busy boy."

Alfred came into the room with a small black phone. "Master Wayne has contacted us. He would like you to meet him...in the proper dress, of course."

"Thankfully, that isn't bright yellow tights anymore," he said with a grin. He tousled Neville's hair and took the phone. "I'll take it from here Alfred."

Neville watched him as he left. "He's really cool," he said, almost as if he'd forgotten that Alfred was in the room.

The butler chuckled. Neville turned to look at him. "What was he like as a kid? I mean...when he started being Robin?"

"Oh, very different than the man you see now," said Alfred. "A most unusual sort. He made some rather rash decisions, had to be pulled out of several rough situations...a bit uncertain of himself, if I remember. Yes, a most unusual boy...though I seem to be finding myself in the care of an abundance of unusual young men. Would you care for some tea before bed, Master Longbottom?"

Neville said nothing and after a moment Alfred left the room. He went to the window and looked into the sky, where a perfect crescent of light marked the edge of the signal they used to call the Batman.


	7. Down the Road

**The Justice Academy of America**

**Author's Note: **Whoo...this has been a long summer. Unfortunately it's going to be an even busier semester, and updates will not be as forthcoming as I'd like, though I will try my hardest to get something new to you at least once a month.

**Disclaimer: **I do not claim any ownership of either the characters or plot from Harry Potter or any from the DC Universe.

**Down the Road**

"Hey kids!" Artie glanced up from the sleek black limo he was washing. "Hey Ron…think you could give me a hand finishing up?"

Ron groaned loudly, but pulled up the sleeves of his shirt and stepped forward to take the shammy his father held out to him.

"I can help too, Mr. Weasley—"

"Artie is still fine," he said with a chuckle, "and I'd be grateful for the help." He popped the trunk and dug around for a moment, pulling out a half-used can of wax. Showing Harry what to do, he stepped back and took a long look at the vehicle.

"This is, like, child labor or something, dad," called Ron over his shoulder.

"I ought to get something out of raising the seven of you," he said, although Harry caught the note of good humor that ran between the two of them. "Your brothers didn't want to come down today?"

Ron shook his head. "Percy is going to talk to Dr. Choy about an assistant position in the labs this year, remember? And I don't know what the twins are doing."

"Probably don't want to," said Mr. Weasley, half to himself. He took up a second rag and helped Harry in finishing the job of cleaning the car. When it finally sat there, gleaming under the afternoon sun, Arthur drove in into the Academy's large and well stocked garage. Though Harry only caught a glimpse of what was inside, it was enough to be impressed. Several large automobiles, motorcycles and at least two things that looked as if they could take flight were housed inside.

"Which one do we get to take home, dad?" said Ron.

"We're not taking one of the school's vehicles," he said, pushing a button on a small remote and closing the door before either of them got a better look. He saw the look of disappointment on Ron's face and nudged him jovially. "I got a side job doing some work on the Batmobile. Thought I might take that instead."

"What?" Ron perked up immediately, and even Harry couldn't help but feel a small excited thump in his chest. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah. There's a few things I can do that somebody without my _gifts _couldn't." He pulled a second control out of his pocket. He pressed a series of buttons and a sleek, fast looking car appeared out of nowhere. With a faint hiss the doors slid upward. Artie took his place behind the driver's seat. "The two of you are going to have to squeeze into the passenger seat."

Ron slid in first, staring in awe at all the buttons and panels that filled the inside of the car. Harry managed to find some space beside him and the doors slid closed again. It did not take them long at all to reach the Weasley's house, which sat on a small expanse of land near to the other edge of town.

"Does he…I mean Batman…does he _really _call it the Batmobile?" asked Harry.

"No. And neither do you, if you ever meet him."

Artie drove the car right into his own garage, which Harry saw was filled with all manner of broken down gadgets and gizmos. They trundled out and Artie ushered them immediately to the door, which led directly into the kitchen of the main house. A plump woman stood at the kitchen sink washing dishes. She stiffened when Harry entered, and without turning said,

"And who is this young man? I don't believe we've met." She turned. Harry blushed a little, seeing that more than just her attention was focused on him—Harry remembered Ron saying that she could sense certain things about a person that others couldn't.

"My name is Harry Potter, ma'am," he said.

"Why yes…it's an honor to meet you." She commenced with her washing, though Harry felt she was still watching him.

"Ron!" Harry jumped. He hadn't seen the young girl come flying into the room, and when she appeared right next to him he jumped right into the air.

"Mind your manners!" said Mrs. Weasley in exasperation. "No running in the house."

"I won't hurt anything," said the girl, rolling her eyes dramatically.

"This is my little sister," explained Ron. "Ginny. She's basically a pain in the butt, but she's okay."

She stuck her tongue out at Ron, and when he winced in pain a second later Harry got the feeling she'd done something to him even though he hadn't seen it. She glanced over at Harry then. "Who are you?"

"This is my roommate," he said.

"What's he do?" she asked.

"I do magic stuff," said Harry. He focused his attention on something new that he had been trying since his meeting with Zatanna, and between the taxing physical exercises he'd been through the past few days. "Enots," he said, touching one of the freshly picked daises that sat in a jar on the kitchen table. It calcified immediately to pure white rock, looking as if it were made of plaster. Ginny gasped excitedly.

"Cool!" she said, picking it up. "Mom, can I put it in my room?"

"Go ahead. And don't…oh, lord," she said, as Ginny disappeared in a flash. Mrs. Weasley sighed, shaking her head. "My children will be the death of me," she said as she tossed her rag into the sink and wiped her hands dry. "Ron dear, why don't you show Harry your room? Lunch will be ready in about an hour."

Following Ron up the steep stairwell that led to his attic bedroom, Harry took notice of the patched up walls and burn marks, scrapes and dents that marred the walls. He supposed that this was the result of having a house full of people with superpowers. A poster for the Kansas City Chiefs marked the door to Ron's room.

Harry stepped in behind him, taking in at once the sheer volume of stuff that had been crammed into the small room. Most notable was the large aquarium that took up most of the back wall. As Ron moved close to it most of the fish in the tank jostled for position to be nearer to him. "Just a minute guys," he said in agitation. He glanced over with an apologetic look on his face. "Listen, I'm going to hop in for a minute. You can poke around a bit if you want."

"Sure," Harry said. Ron pulled off his shirt and his jeans—he was wearing a pair of tight swimming shorts underneath. Climbing up on a table, he pulled himself up over the edge of the tank and slid in. Harry watched for a few minutes as Ron floated around in the tank. It seemed to have been made so that he had just enough room to stretch out to his full length and to turn around without too much difficulty.

Harry turned his attention away finally, and instead found the pile of comic books that had been thrown into a giant box at the foot of Ron's bed. Having never been allowed to read them in the Dursley's house, Harry didn't know many of the titles. He picked up one with a flashy cartoon style drawing of Wonder Woman on the cover—it was a fair likeness, he was surprised to find. He flipped through it.

"Hey," he called out to Ron. "This is a true story isn't it? I remember when they talked about this on the evening news."

There was a small splash as Ron's head popped out of the tank. "What? Oh, yeah," he said. "There's a shop in Smallville that sells those. There are a few made up stories too—mostly about pirates. Kind of lame."

Harry picked up another. "Hey, it's Superman!" he said, flipping it open. "This is pretty cool."

"Haven't you ever read those before?" Ron said. When Harry explained about his uncle, he shook his head. "Keep it then. Mum's been threatening to throw them away anyway. Just grab whichever ones you like, I won't miss them."

He sunk back into the water and, taking him at his word, Harry picked out a handful of comics to take back to the school with him. Sitting cross legged in the center of the bed, he started reading the one that looked the most interesting. The picture on the front was of a man with grim looking eyes, a red stone clutched in his hand, standing behind Superman as he faced a dark figure.

When Mrs. Weasley called upstairs that lunch was ready, he stuck the comic back with the others he had grabbed, stuffing them into his bag. Ron jumped out of the tank, splashing Harry as he did so, and quickly toweled off before pulling his clothes back on.

"You don't mind me bringing the tank up, do you?" said Ron sheepishly. "I think they miss me."

Harry glanced at the fish, and shrugged. "They look pretty cool. I don't care."

Together they made their way back downstairs, where Artie and Ginny were already seated at the large table. There was another tall man there with long, red hair. He was wearing a leather jacket that was notably singed.

"Bill!" said Ron excitedly, jumping the last few steps.

The man grinned. "Hey, little bro. The Academy kick you out already?"

Ginny giggled, then quickly evaded Ron's elbow as he tried to nudge her. "Children," said Mrs. Weasley with a sigh, although it was obvious their good humor was rubbing off on her—she couldn't help but grin herself.

"We're shipping him back as soon as he's fed," said Artie, taking a big bite of his burger…and to Harry's amusement, tinkering with a small metallic object at the same time.

"This is Bill, my oldest son," said Mrs. Weasley. "Bill, this is Harry Potter. He's Ron's new roommate."

"Potter?" Bill perked up. "That'd make you a magic user then?" he said.

Harry nodded. He grinned. "Pleased to meet you. I'm a firestarter."

"So…nobody has the same powers?" Harry asked. "I mean…you're a family…"

"Well, powers are tricky," said Mrs. Weasley, speaking as she ushered him into a seat. "My powers are more…introspective. Percy is more like me. Fred and George too…they play with people's perceptions of time."

"And me and Charlie both talk to animals…" Ron said. "Ginny and Bill are the only ones to have physical abilities…"

"We come from a long line of superheroes. One of the oldest that isn't of magical lineage," said Artie after swallowing a mouthful of his sandwich.

Lunch continued in much the same vein—Harry said little, preferring to listen to the Weasleys tell their stories about past superheroes in their family. When they had finally wrapped up and Artie told them that it was time to head back to the Academy, Ron and Harry went out to the garage. They were just coming through the door when Artie put his hand up—he was holding a small black cell-phone sized item.

"Mr. Weasley, there has been an incident." A voice crackled over the communicator. "Is my vehicle ready?"

"It is," Artie replied. "Do you need me to put it on autopilot?"

"Affirmative."

Artie sighed. "Sorry to do this to you guys, but we just lost our ride." The garage door slid open under his touch. He barely laid his hand on top of the Batmobile and it blazed to life, lights flashing. With a loud squeal it sped backward, disappearing as the cloaking device engaged.

"Guess Bats had something to take care of," said Ron with a shrug. "Hey dad, if it's cool we'll just walk back to the school."

Artie raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? I can rig up the old Chevy…"

Ron looked reluctantly at a pile of turquoise metal sitting close by. "It's okay. Harry and I can handle it, right?"

"Yeah, sure," he said.

"All right, but give me a call once you get there."

Ron replied that he would, and together the boys started out onto the long dirt road that led to the Academy. "Sorry about that," said Ron, "but I don't want to be caught dead tooling around in that hunk of junk."

"It's all right, I like walking," said Harry.

They started walking, talking very little as they trudged along under the summer sun. The school was just barely visible on the horizon, and it was the only thing visible for miles around besides the Weasley home behind them and fields as far as they could see.

"So you really grew up here?" asked Harry after a few moments of watching a crow circle overhead.

Ron shook his head. "The Academy was based entirely in the satellite at first," he said, "and it wasn't until a few years ago that they built the base here in Smallville."

"Why here?" he said. "It seems like the last place in the world a bunch of superheroes would live."

Ron shrugged. "Who knows?"

They were halfway back to the school when they heard the rattle of an ancient motor coming up a side road. Ron grabbed Harry by the arm and pulled him to the shoulder of the road just as a rusty old truck came barreling toward them.

"Whoa there!" A man leaned out the window, slowing to a stop. "You kids need a ride somewhere?"

It was on the tip of Harry's tongue to say no, thanks, but Ron beat him to the punch. "Sure, thanks Mr. Kent!" he said. Catching the look that Harry gave him, he mouthed that it was safe.

"The cab only has one seat, but you can hop up in the back if you'd like!" he said with a cheerful grin.

"No problem!" Ron pulled himself up and swung into the back of the trunk, Harry following suit. After a brief moment, the window that separated the inside of the truck from the back swung open.

"So, what are you doing out of Metropolis Mr. Kent?" asked Ron. "Taking a break from the paper?"

"Just here for a few days helping Ma and Pa at the farm. I just got back from delivering a load of hay to the McKinnons. Hey, you're enrolled at that school now, aren't you? That makes almost every generation of Weasleys. You must be a gifted lot."

Ron smiled. "You could say that," he said. "This is my roommate, Harry. Harry, this is Clark Kent. He's a real Smallville hero. His parents practically run the town."

"Now, if Ma and Pa heard you say that they'd be after getting those kinds of ideas out of your head," said Clark with a laugh. Harry couldn't see much but the back of his head, but in the rearview mirror he caught a glance of blue eyes twinkling behind glasses. For just a moment, he felt there was something strangely familiar about them.

"So, Henry, where are you from?"

"Texas," he said. "Around Dallas. And it's Harry, Harry Potter."

"Potter?" said Clark suddenly, almost incredulously. "Seems I've been hearing that name a lot lately. I was just assigned a piece looking into the mysterious vanishing of the heir to Potter Chemicals, Inc. Heard anything about it?"

Harry shook his head furiously. "No, sir. I don't really follow the news."

Clark hummed thoughtfully, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. "At any rate, it's an interesting case," he said. He pulled up the long drive that led into the school. "Guess I'll let you guys off. You watch out for yourselves, all right? Smallville can be more dangerous than you think.

Ron and Harry hopped out onto the ground, and waved back at Clark as he bid them farewell. Ron pressed the button on the speaker and waited for the person on the other end to speak.

"No outside communication currently permitted. Please wait for further assistance," the terse voice commanded.

"What the…" Ron sputtered. After a moment he pressed the button again.

When the voice crackled once again over the speaker, Harry noted a certain tension. "Outside communication not permitted. Please wait for assistance."

Ron began spouting some colorful language that no doubt Mrs. Weasley would not be happy about. It took him a few moments, and by the time he ran out of choice words Harry noted a figure hurriedly making its way from the front door.

"Zatanna!" Harry breathed in relief. Then his heart fell. She was dressed in her costume, a dark cloak wrapped around her shoulders. Her eyes were dark when they fell on Ron and Harry. She slid the gate open just enough to slip through and then it crashed back behind her.

Ron began to speak but she put out her hand. "Ecnelis," she ordered. Harry felt his throat tighten. He was very certain that he was no longer able to speak. "Wosh em ruoy eurt ytitnedi." A faint light enveloped both he and Ron, lingering over their skin for several long moments before fading. When it did so, nothing about either of them had changed.

Zatanna sighed, and the fierce look in her eyes faded. "Kaeps," she said.

"What was that about?" Ron sputtered.

"There was an attempted break in approximately one and a half hours ago," she said, taking each boy by the shoulder and steering them inside the gate, which opened once again just enough to let them in. "The school is on its highest alert and nobody is to exit or enter. The exception being the two of you. Tim Drake and one other man have been patrolling Smallville to find you."

"We must have left my house just before the break in," said Ron.

"We're lucky Mr. Kent happened to be coming our way," said Harry. "Do you know who tried to break in?"

"I'm certain that there are many people working to figure that out right now. The two of you better get up to your room. We're on lockdown for the rest of the night so if there's anything you need I'd suggest you get it now."

It wasn't until early the next morning, when they were released from their confinement and all shuffled down for breakfast, that they had any clue about what had happened. There was a large written notice on the doors of the Great Hall, and several printouts were stacked on the tables. Hermione had already read through the entire notice before Harry and Ron had begun to read theirs. They heard a gasp and looked at her.

"I can't believe it!" she said. "Somebody actually managed to get onto the Satellite!"


	8. Wit and Wisdom

**The Justice Academy of America**

**Disclaimer: **I do not claim any ownership of either the characters or plot from Harry Potter or any from the DC Universe.

**The Next Chapter**

Among the older students, the story of the break-in remained fodder for rumor and speculation. But the younger students quickly forgot everything about it as they got ready for their first days of class. Their uniforms were delivered, each fashioned after their powers. Harry's was a set of black robes, emblazoned with a symbol that Luna explained to him, in as clear a manner as she could managed, represented each of the four elements. Ron's were black, with the symbol that denoted metahumans, and made of a stretchy rubber that fit over the body like scales. Hermione had something that resembled a lab coat with a silver pin in the shape of a pair of small scales.

It was surprising, especially considering their different placements in the Acadamey, that Harry and Ron found themselves in many of the same classes together. The only real deviation in their schedule was their thrice weekly focus class. At that time, Harry would join Luna aboard the satellite for classes with Zatanna, while Ron would be taking direction from Aquaman himself (or an appointed substitute if some underwater emergency detained his mentor).

Hermione shared a handful of classes with Ron and Harry, though the fact that she had a good handful of advanced math and science courses and the fact that she wouldn't be in the same combat training courses meant their time together was limited to ethics, world history, history of the universe, and English.

This was another thing that had surprised Harry about his class schedule. He had expected a school for those with superhuman abilities to take less time to teach its students the sort of things one would learn in ordinary school. But, if anything, their days were packed with social studies, government courses, and any number of lectures on things like art and music.

"Well, you can't expect them to send us into the world without knowing how to do anything but fight crime," said Ron one morning when Harry mentioned this. "Every hero has a secret identity—and to keep your identity properly secret, you have to be the last person anybody would expect to put on tights and chase down bad guys."

Neville nodded gravely. "The first people the cops turn to when they're trying to smoke out supers is other cops. Then it's Olympic athletes, military veterans, and professional fighters. But most supers are actually hiding in plain sight…"

"Like Bruce Wayne," said Harry. "I mean, he's a multibillionaire or something—I mean, it was in the newspaper a few weeks ago how he was dating some actress."

"And your parents," said Luna with a strange smile. "They were quite rich too."

"If being a super means I get to be rich, I'm in," said Ron, taking a huge bite of his pancakes.

"Sorry Ron, but you won't be able to drive your pimped out ride under the sea," said Harry, grinning at the curse he got out of Ron.

It struck Harry as they were speaking that somewhere there was a bank account with his name on it and billions of dollars. He suddenly pictured himself living in a huge mansion filled with the sorts of things he could only imagine a man like Mr. Wayne filled his home with. He wondered if he would ever date a supermodel, and got an instant flash of himself snuggled up close with the hot actress from the robot movie. He felt his face flush, and just as he was he was probably glowing red the bell rang and he rushed off to his first class.

It just so happened that this was ethics, which he shared with most of his friends. It was located on the ground, and they found the room half filled when they made their way there. Harry glanced away when his eyes fell on Draco Malfoy, who smirked at him from across the room. He quickly took his seat and waited for the teacher to join them.

"Hello, class," said a petite blonde as she sailed into room. "Hi sweetie," she said, smiling in Susan's direction.

"That's Black Canary," Ron whispered.

"Class…class?" It seemed the whispers did not stop with Ron, as the entire room buzzed for several seconds. "Could everybody please be silent?" The chattering did not stop. Finally the woman put either hand on the desk and, seeing Susan's hands fly over her ears, Harry followed suit.

"QUIET!" she shrieked. The windows rattled ominously in their pains. Everybody in the room immediately fell to attention. "Thank you," she said, smiling again. "My name is Dinah Queen, and this is Ethics for the Modern World." She flicked a switch and the room went dark, then a bright white square appeared on the wall. "I will be beginning this class with a short presentation. There will be a quiz next period so I suggestion you take notes."

For the next hour and a half Harry scribbled down everything that sounded important, and when the bell rang he parted ways with Hermione and Luna to make his way to the gym with Ron.

"So, does your room smell like dead fish Potter? I'd check under his bed and make sure he's not hoarding carp if I were you."

Harry tried his best to ignore Draco's taunt as he switched into his gym clothes, although Ron wheeled right around and stood face to face with Draco, fists balled.

"What was that? I don't think I heard you?" he said.

"Got water in your ears?" a large boy, one of Draco's goons, snickered.

"I think you'll find I can fight as well out of water as in," said Ron menacingly. Draco took a step forward, and Ron had just raised his fists when Neville jumped in, yanking Ron back in one solid move, surprising nobody more than Ron himself, who seemed to come out of a haze.

Just then there was a loud banging on the door. "Get in here! Playtime's over," shouted Dick. The boys trotted out of the locker room, Ron still a bit agitated and Draco acting as if he'd just won something important.

"All right! To start off our day we're doing twenty laps around the gym. The last ten finish get an extra ten laps at the end of class. Each week the number of laps moves up by five, until we're doing fifty. All right…" he paused while everybody got ready. "Go!"

Harry was very aware of the fact that he was being outpaced by a good number of the students. Neville was one of a handful that had already moved ahead of the large cluster that made up most of the class. Ron was also doing well, and had already moved ahead of several people. Unfortunately, Harry found himself keeping pace fairly close to Draco. He tried to ignore him, which wasn't hard at first.

But as more and more people moved ahead, and gradually several others finished their laps, it became obvious that Draco was intentionally staying close to Harry. On their seventeenth lap, he heard him sneer, "Getting tired Potter?"

The taunts continued. Finally, Dick called out, "All right! Two more to go and the rest of you are running extra laps. Let's go!" Harry pushed himself to run faster—not so much to avoid the extra laps, but because he couldn't help hoping he would show up Malfoy, even if just by a little bit. He heard Dick shout something as Seamus crossed the finish line, and grasping onto his last ounce of speed he pushed ahead, coming closer and closer to the line until…

"Whoa, there!" The class broke into jeers and a few groans as Harry went flying facedown, glasses skidding across the ground and snapping as Draco ran over them on the way across the line.

He pulled himself up. "You all right? That was a pretty nasty fall," said Dick as he crossed to him, handing him the pieces of his eyewear.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Harry chose not to mention the invisible barrier that had sent him to the ground, or the look of triumph Draco shot his way.

The rest of the class covered basic athletic and weight training exercises. With the extra laps he was forced to run at the end of class, Harry felt like every muscle in his body was on fire as he sat down for lunch.

"Here, have some carbohydrates," said Hermione sympathetically, pushing a basket of rolls his way. "The simple sugars should help your muscles regenerate lactic acid, and ease some of your pain."

"I can't believe that jerk Malfoy," said Ron.

"What's he doing here anyway?" said Harry. "Shouldn't there be a special school for supervillains somewhere?"

They had one more class together—English—before they had to split up. Harry said goodbye to Ron before he and Luna took the transporter to the satellite for their lessons with Zatanna. Unfortunately, Draco was also in attendance, but Harry felt redeemed that the last member of their group was Seamus. At least it seemed that with Draco so obviously outnumbered the trouble he could cause was limited.

"Doog o tees uoy niaga…good to see you again," said Zatanna, winking as they came into the room. "This is, of course, beginners magic. Now, as I'm sure all of you are aware, each person uses magic in a way that is unique to them. Some magic users…such as you, Seamus…make use of magical objects to access their powers. Others, such as you Draco, inherit their magic."

"It is said that Merlin himself gifted the Malfoys with their powers," he said with a sharp nod.

Zatanna smiled. "And others were not gifted with it, nor is it an inheritance which could be given or taken away. It is in their blood, which means that there is no way of knowing how powerful you may be or what form your magic will take. Luna is my cousin…after a fashion," said Zatanna. "And usually magic is somewhat similar among family members. Although you don't speak your spells backwards, Luna?"

Luna smiled and shook her head, but neither she nor Zatanna elaborated. "So, Harry? I'm sure you are aware why your father was called Stag?"

"He often transformed into a silver stag," said Harry. "He was a shapeshifter."

"Not primarily a shapeshifter," said Zatanna, "which is why his ability to change shape was limited to one form. It is highly likely that because your father had the ability to change shapes, you will be able to also. That is something we will be focusing on in our first few weeks here. Now," she turned her attention from Harry to address the entire class. "In our training I was able to note that all of you seem to have at least a basic understanding of magic, and all of you can summon fire. Harry can control ice…"

"And stone," he said, remembering the flower in the Weasley house.

"Excellent," she said. "Draco, you have some control of emotions, is that correct? But your control of fire was fairly weak when I tested you."

"Yes, ma'am," he said. "Fear and anger mostly, though I'm pretty good at making people happy."

"Bet you used that on mom and dad sometime, or tried to, hmm?" she said, smiling slyly. "Be warned, every teacher that works in this school has a shield against student magic. Trying a trick like that could get you expelled."

"I wouldn't think of it," he said, although Harry was certain he looked a little disappointed.

"Now Seamus, you have complete control over the four basic elements, is that correct?"

"Yes, Miss Zatanna."

"And you are able to do some magic without your wand?"

He nodded. "A bit ma'am. Our family controls seven wands. Me mum still has one, but the rest belong to me cousins in Ireland. Since we're so far from the others we can't do as much without having the other wands nearby."

"All right. Then we're going to start the day by going over some very basic exercises. I've designed a set for each of you and you will work in pairs according to your particular skills. Harry, Luna, you will work together this year. Seamus and Draco, you will work together. Since this is a rather small group there is a strong likelihood we will go on…ahem…field trips later in the semester, to observe the use of magic in a combat setting…"

Harry's eyes widened. Did she mean she was going to take them on a real fight? Draco looked ecstatic about the possibility of that.

"Now, start working. In about thirty minutes I'll start pulling you individually. We have some things to discuss."

As it turned out Harry was the third to be called, over two hours into the class (which was itself a double lesson, four hours long.) He walked into the adjoining room, which Harry could see was walled on one side by a double mirror that allowed Zatanna to watch what was happening in the other room.

There was nothing in the room—not even a chair or table. "We're going to run through the elementals. I have a feeling you already have them all down. Ready?" Harry nodded.

They started with fire, then moved on to ice and water, which she had him turn to stone. He summoned wind, and ended with electricity, sending a small bolt of lightning crashing to the floor from the lighting fixture above.

"Mmm…good," she said. "A natural it would seem. Now, Harry, I wanted to try something with you. Your father was a shapeshifter. I want you to now try and harness that power for yourself…reach down inside yourself and see if you can't find it there. Close your eyes."

He did so. After a few moment's he was aware of Zatanna's voice—it took several long minutes for him to realize that her calm presence, her coaching, was completely inside his head rather than in the room with him. As he followed her direction he felt almost as if he was taking a long walk through the corridors of his own mind—opening door after door and closing them again, searching for something that he wasn't even certain was there.

Then, suddenly, he felt as if he'd alighted on something. He felt like the center of his body was turning in on itself, and no sooner had he felt it than he let go and was jolted back to reality. His eyes flew open, and Zatanna was standing in front of him with her fingers lightly touching his temple on either side. She smiled serenely.

"You're almost there, Harry. Why don't we try again?"

This time, right when he would have backed away like he did before, Zatanna urged him to embrace it. And suddenly something happened. His body was changing, but rather than feel pain it was as if he'd never felt better in his life. All the aches from his training went away, and he felt as if he could take on any number of enemies in his present state.

He opened his eyes. Although he could feel four feet touching the ground, the antlers adding to the weight on his head, he was still surprised to see the reflection of a golden stag in the glass of the double mirror. Only a few seconds later he felt himself pulled back into his own body.

"You'll learn to hold the form with practice," she said. "Go on back into the other room. Send in Draco—you need to finish your sets with Luna."

He nodded and returned to the others. "So, you turned into a stag," said Luna serenely as Harry rejoined her.

"What?" he glanced at the double mirror. "I thought you couldn't see through that."

"I can't," she said.

"So," said Harry after a long moment. "I wanted to ask you…you haven't used any incantations or anything. You know, to use your magic."

"Hmm? Oh, well, I learned to do a lot of it ages ago. I still have to concentrate on the big stuff."

"So, how do you do it?" he asked. "Zatanna said you don't speak backwards."

"Oh, well…I have different ways of concentrating. Here, let me show you. She lifted up her hand toward his face, looking at it intently.

"Quibbling eyeglasses," she muttered. Suddenly Harry felt the glasses on his nose tremble, and suddenly it seemed like his vision was intensified through them—and with shock, he realized he could see _through _ things, right into the room where he could see Draco struggling with an attempt at wind.

He took them off, and suddenly he saw things with his own normal sight—which wasn't much at all. He put them back on the X-Ray was gone.

"So that's how you saw," he said in wonder.

"Something like that," said Luna with a shrug.

"So…wait. I don't get it. Quibbling eyeglasses? What does that mean?"

"I speak nonsense," she said. "I mean…it seems like nonsense, but the words do make sense in a way. Quibbling is like nitpicking…so quibbling eyeglasses…"

"Means glasses that can see every little detail…even through walls," he said, not a little surprised.

The day ended and they went back down for dinner with the rest of their friends. At the next table Draco was bragging about how he had already been put at the top of his magic class—that Zatanna was even considering advancing him to the advanced class before long. "So," said Harry to Luna, with his fork halfway to his mouth. "Irritable underpants?"

Luna glanced at Draco, and grinned. "Irritable, immovable underpants." The people at their table might have asked about their strange exchange if Draco hadn't suddenly jumped up from where he sat, letting out a loud and high-pitched yelp as he ran from the room. Although they all broke out into laughter none were so amused as Luna and Harry, and for the moment nobody else got the joke.


	9. Magic

**Harry Potter: A Brave Beginning**

**Author's Note: **Gosh! I can't believe that it's been so long since I updated! I've been a bit busy lately so right now I'm using the fact that the weather is terrible and I actually have immediate access to the internet (for a change) to go ahead and get another chapter up and going. (By the way, I'm fully aware of the large amount of errors and inconsistencies in my story. Most of them are due to the fact that I tend to write this story while half awake…)

**Chapter Nine**

By the time late October hit, Harry could hardly believe that he'd already spent nearly two months at the Academy. Two months that, for the first time he could ever remember, he hadn't had to deal with the Dursleys or their endless badgering—two months in which he had done more and learned more than he ever thought possible, surrounded by people who were unlike any others he'd ever hoped to meet.

The thing that surprised him the most about these two months was how easy it was to fall into a routine. He woke up, went to the classes that were posted on his schedule (which now barely changed from week to week.) His marks in ethics and history were average, according to the first six-weeks summary, while his marks in magic were near perfect. He was doing fairly in his "Ordinary" classes, as many of the older students called their lessons in art, history, and English.

Though far from bored, Harry wouldn't have been ashamed to admit that perhaps he would like something to shake things up. So he was actually pleased when one morning over breakfast Hermione gasped in shock.

"What happened? Somebody slip something in your oatmeal?" asked Ron, still groggy and looking as if he'd just rolled out of bed…which was probably.

"There's a new class on the schedule! A _brand new _class!" she said, pointing at the offending block.

"What? Let me see." Ron picked up his own schedule and, after a moment's perusal, nodded. "Yeah, guess she's right. Defense Against the Supernatural Arts…huh. Never heard of that one before."

"It's new," said Luna. She sat down beside Harry, quietly folding her own schedule into a paper crane and setting it beside her plate. "Professor J'onz should be making an announcement in a moment."

It was obvious that Harry's group wasn't the only one surprised by the new addition to the schedule—several students, including many upper years, were buzzing with excitement when the headmaster appeared, quite suddenly, sliding through the back wall of the dais.

"Everybody, please be quiet," he said. The buzz lowered to a light hum. "As I am sure you have noted by now there is an addition to your schedule. This course is now required, and will be taught to all years. Your new professor is not available at present but I will be receiving a full report from him so I suggest you behave appropriately." Without so much as a word to indicate that his speech was over J'onz sat down at the table, picking up a small chocolate disk from the table.

"Are those oreos?" hissed Ron to nobody in particular. When nobody responded he slid back in his seat with a sulky expression on his face. "That's not fair. Why can't students get oreos?"

"You live a mile from here," said Harry. "Ask your mom to pop some up here…and when you do tell her I said thanks." Taking one last bite of his breakfast he threw his backpack over one shoulder. The others followed suit, and as a group made their way to their English class.

The new class was directly after lunch, and after more discussion about the class (and who their new teacher could possibly be) Harry, Ron, Hermione and Luna found their way to the classroom, which was set up in one of the few basements of the Academy. When they entered the room they saw immediately that Draco Malfoy was also in attendance, and the four of them occupied a single table on the complete opposite side of the room.

At one o'clock the bell chimed announcing the beginning of class. Fifteen minute later the students were in a heated debate over whether or not they should stick it out, find another professor, or just leave when there was a loud bang. Everybody jumped out of their seats as the door flew open, revealing a tall man in a long tan trench coat. He looked to be in his mid-thirties or so. He slammed the door back behind him, glancing down blindly at the briefcase before, with a quick gesture, it disappeared to who-knew-where.

Without so much as a glance in the direction of the thirty or so students who sat watching him he tossed his coat across the desk, revealing himself to be tallish and somewhat lanky--definitely not like any hero that Harry had yet met. He had blond hair that stuck out in every which direction, and a five o'clock shadow that may have been on it's third or fourth day. He was dressed in a white shirt and wore a narrow black tie. He reached into a pocket of the coat, digging for something, and came back with a small box of cigarettes. He lit one, took a deep drag, and finally glancing over at the students snorted.

"And what the fuck do you want?" he said sharply. Half the students almost jumped out of their seats--the others were frozen in place, afraid to catch the attention of this madman, or whatever he was.

Harry glanced over at Hermione, not surprised by the look on her face that clearly stated she was seriously considering finding the headmaster and informing him that a madman had somehow broken onto school grounds. Ron looked equally perplexed, more by the fact that the scruffy looking man was still staring at them as if they were supposed to respond.

Finally, Hermione shakily raised her hand. "Sir?" she said quietly.

"Yeah, you? What is it you want?" she said.

"Me?" She spoke on a sharp inhalation of breath so that it almost seemed like she'd gasped. "I...well...what do you mean?" she finally asked.

"What is it you little buggers want?" he said. Harry noted suddenly that the man spoke with a British accent. He didn't know why that fact in particular struck him--after all, he'd met people from outer space--but there was just something about the place across the ocean that had always seemed so far away.

"We want you to teach us, sir. About supernatural things and..."

"Wrong! I'm here to teach you magic. How to use it, and all about it," he said. "Not that I particularly want to, mind you, but I've got debts to repay..." He trailed off, as if lost in thought. "You!" he said suddenly, and turned suddenly to see Neville straighten, his face going green. "What were you whispering about over there?"

"I...I was just wondering if maybe I'm in the wrong class, sir," he said, flushing brightly.

"You're here, aren't you?" he snapped. He puffed out a cloud of thick gray smoke. Harry felt his eyes watering, and he saw that Hermione was holding her breath as she listened to him speak. Only Luna seemed nonchalant about the whole thing, watching the spectacle with the same dreamy expression on her face that she wore whenever she spoke about magic, or superheroes, or breakfast.

"I am, sir," Neville was saying, "but I can't use magic..."

"That's bull," said the man, enunciating his words slowly and deliberately.

"Now pay attention, because this is probably the most important thing you'll learn in this class. I'm about to tell you the ultimate secret of magic— and that's that any cunt can do it. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. The wizarding world has been taken over by a bunch of fuck-ups and arrogant bastards, all positive that their ability to wave a poncy little wand and say a few words makes them Merlin Incarnate and superior to everyone else on this godforsaken planet. Their noses are so far up each other's arses that they're blind to the truth--that any bloke or bird right off the London street can do anything they can do. All it takes is a little bit of knowledge and a whole lot of will, and abracadabra, hocus bloody pocus—you've got magic."

He paused then, taking another drag. "Right. Any questions?"

Immediately most of the hands in the class went up. Hermione was now the brightest shade of red he imagined it was possible for her to be. She had flinched with every dirty word the man had used--as for that so had Harry, although he couldn't help the small sense of admiration he felt for him. Harry liked rebels. After all, he _had _run away in his own uncle's police cruiser.

The man glanced over every student, finally settling on Harry. "You, you're that Potter kid," he said.

Harry nodded awkwardly. "Stag's kid, then," he said. "I worked with your father a couple of times. Good guy. 'Course, I don't give a damn who your folks were. You're going to have to bust your ass in here."

"And just who are _you?_" Hermione blurted out.

"John Constantine," said the man. He glanced up at the clock. No more than twenty minutes had passed since he'd walked into the classrooms. "Right then, guess that concludes our lessons for the day." And without another word he grabbed his trenchcoat and stalked out of the room. The students were left staring in bemusement or admiration, as the case was. It was a full ten minutes before Hermione could be convinced to leave the room (as the syllabus stated class was to last until two-thirty).

"I just don't get it," she said finally. "Why would a class like that be mandatory? And with a teacher like that! He's insane."

"I don't know," said Harry. "I thought he seemed all right."

"Ugh," said Hermione defeatedly. "He smokes like a chimney and he curses like...like...he used words that I don't even know, but I'm pretty certain they're bad!" she said, coloring to a bright pink.

"Oh, I have older brothers," said Ron. "Trust me. They were bad."

Hermione was shaking her head. "I just think it's stupid. I'm a scientist...it's not all, wave your arms and hocus-pocus and poof!" she said, waving her hands in the air to make her point.

"What do you mean?" said Harry. He turned around so that he was facing her. "Magic's not that easy," he said.

"Oh, that's not what, I meant," she said, dismissing him. "It's just that it makes no sense that non-magic users would be in that class. Everybody can use magic? Come on, Harry," she said. "That just can't be true, can it? Anyway, I just don't see the point in it. Magic has been the same for hundreds of years and science is changing every day..."

"So magic isn't important then?" Harry and Hermione had now stopped and were facing each other in the center of the hall. Ron had stepped away, but hadn't quite left yet, and was wearing his best 'I'd rather be anywhere else' look. When Hermione said nothing, Harry felt his skin prickle. He thought of his uncle, how he thought that the superheroes were scum...how real law enforcement officials should be left to do their job.

"You're just jealous," he said. "Just because you're a boring science geek."

Hermione stared at him for a long moment. She was shaking, though whether it was from anger or something else Harry didn't have time to find out. She shot past him, and suddenly he felt his heart drop into the pit of his stomach.

"I was right wasn't he?" he said to Ron.

"Not a clue. I wasn't really listening," he added. Harry got the feeling Ron was lying, and it didn't do anything to get rid of the burst of guilt that overwhelmed him.

"Well, damn it," said Harry in frustration. "Whatever. Never mind. I'll apologize tonight. At the Halloween Party."

* * *

**Author's Note: The bit about Constantine is borrowed from two sources. The bit about magic is canon, and some aspects of the way he enters the classroom, and the way he interacts with the kids, is borrowed from "The Laughing Professor" by Captain-Emily. A pretty cool one shot a friend pointed out to me when he realized I was writing a classroom scene with our favorite Hellblazer.


	10. Battlegrounds

**Harry Potter: A Brave Beginning**

**Author's Note: **Whoo! I just wanted to apologize for the typos/poor grammer of the past few chapters. This is all to do with the fact that I generally write in the middle of the night on a friend's computer, as I currently have none of my own. I hope to get a few more chapters done pretty quickly. We'll see what happens.

**Chapter Ten**

"I don't see why I have to wear this stupid thing." Ron was standing in front of the bedroom mirror, where he'd been trying for an hour to make himself look just a little bit better in the ill-fitting costume his mother had sent up for him.

"I don't think you look that bad," Harry offered. Never mind that he was suppressing a snicker when he said it. Ron was wearing what could pass for a Sailor's uniform, complete with a white cap perched jauntily on his head—at least, it would have been jauntily perched there if fifteen minutes before Ron hadn't thrown it in a crumpled heap on top of the bed. "At least you kind of look cool. You know, for a goofy magician."

Harry self-consciously pulled at his cuffs. He hadn't been planning to wear a costume to the party, so he'd been surprised when he'd gotten to his room to find that Zatanna had sent him an old stage magician's costume, complete with top hat and magic wand. "It's kind of stuffy," he said.

"It's better than looking like one of the Village People. Fred and George are going to torture me for days with this. No, weeks…years!" He made a final face at his reflection in the mirror before, somewhat dejected, he finally turned away. It was then that he noticed Harry was only marginally interested. "Hey man, what's the problem? Are you still worried about Hermione?"

"Yeah. I guess I am," said Harry. He sat down on the edge of his bed. "I still don't know why I got so mad at her. It seems so stupid now, doesn't it? I mean, I know she doesn't hate me just because I'm a magic user. And I think she's the most brilliant person I have ever met." He ran a hand through his hair in annoyance. "It's almost like…like somebody was messing with my emotions."

Realization struck him like a lead weight. "Oh, no!" he groaned, falling back on the bed "I can't believe I fell for it!"

"Fell for what?" said Ron.

"Malfoy. He can play with emotions…make people mad for no good reason." He grit his teeth and his fists automatically clenched into fists. "I bet Hermione getting all flustered like that gave him the fuel. Then he used it to start a big, fat stupid argument between the two of us."

"How can you be sure?" said Ron.

"He was there, wasn't he? It's the first time the three of us have ever been in a class together. I'm going to hunt him down and…"

"Right….uhm, Harry?" Ron was looking at him in concern. "Don't you think you ought to go and find Hermione first? And…you know, apologize?"

After a moment he realized that Ron was right and, grabbing his hat and forcing Ron into his, the pair swept out of the room. They met Neville halfway down the hall, fidgeting with his brightly colored unitard. When both Harry and Ron raised their eyebrows, he flushed deeply. "It's stupid, I know. Mr. Grayson chose it for me. He used to be a circus performer."

"At least it gets you used to the tights," said Ron, earning himself an elbow in the ribs from Harry. By the time they got to the main dining hall they met up with Dean (who had grown an enormous afro and was wearing a white bell-bottomed suit, and explained to the rest that he had been told that this was the customary dress of men in earth's history), and Seamus in what he told everybody was the traditional garb of an Irish dancer. (Just how sequined, flowing blouses and tight pants became traditional dress Harry hesitated to ask.

Just inside the doors time slowed to a sudden halt and Fred and George appeared in front of them. "Freddy-Fred!" shouted the former, crossing his arms across his chest. "And Georgy-George!" his twin mimicked. Both were wearing giant clocks on thick gold chains around their necks. While one seemed to be frozen in place the other was whizzing around the timepiece at a blur. They also wore satin track jackets and huge sunglasses that covered their faces.

"Yo Ronny!" said the first. "Fo rizzle, dawg! You be pimpin'!"

"Oh, no…" said Ron, slapping himself in the face. "You have got to be kidding me."

"How dare you be player hatin'?" said George, striding forward to punch his little brother none too delicately in the shoulder.

"I don't know what's more embarrassing," said Neville, a small smile breaking out on his face.

"Why did you call him a dog? Can I be pimpin' too?" Time suddenly returned to normal as everybody swung around to see Luna standing there. She was dressed in white from head to toe, a full skirt swinging down to around her knees and a pair of jaunty rabbit ears perked up on top of her head.

"Er…we better be going. Don't want to be seen sitting at the kiddy table," said Fred as he started to walk away.

"For real. That was fresh," shouted George as he followed him.

"What was fresh?" Luna winked at Harry, further confusing him about whether or not she meant a word that she was saying.

Now that the twins were gone he got a better look at his surroundings. There were traditional decorations everywhere—ghostly, gauzy figures hung from the ceiling and more pumpkins carved with garish, jolly and spooky faces than he'd ever before seen.

He also noticed, almost immediately, that all of the students fourth or fifth year and older were dressed in what he considered 'normal' superhero garb. Ron noticed his attentions and leaned over. "Usually the older students have already started working out in the field, so a lot of them already have their superhero costumes. The teachers will be wearing theirs too…see? There's the Black Canary."

Their ethics teacher was standing on the raised podium next to a man who was seated at the table. He was dressed in green from head to toe like a modern day Robin Hood. It didn't take a genius to recognize him as the Green Arrow.

"Looks like Susan's already dressed up in her costume," said Harry, pointing to the girl who stood not from away from the pair. She was wearing a scarlet version of the outfit, a sling full of arrows over her back. Ron nodded.

"Well, she's been training for this for a long time," he commented.

Standing up on toes Harry scanned the room. "Luna? Do you know where Hermione is? I really wanted to talk to her."

"Hermione?" Luna furrowed her brow. "I don't know. Have you checked the stables?"

"We don't have stables," said Harry.

"Oh. Well, I guess she isn't there then." When Harry sighed she seemed to relent a little. "Honestly, I haven't seen her since this morning. She didn't come back to the room after classes."

"Maybe she finally realized that she's not good enough for this school." Draco Malfoy walked into the crowd, wearing a haughty sneer to match the tailored tuxedo and vampire makeup he'd come down in.

"Shut up, Malfoy!" Harry wheeled around. His fingers gripped white knuckled around the wand, despite the fact that he knew it didn't have any real powers. "Tell me what you did today."

"Oh, I woke up, had breakfast…proved a point." He rolled his eyes when Harry cursed at him. "Come on, Potter. I told you the very first day that people like her don't belong here. It was just too easy to play with her mind…and yours too, now that I think of it."

"You were right," Ron said. There was a tone of astonishment in his voice that Harry picked up on immediately. "I mean…I didn't not believe you…or…"

"Really, Potter, what is it with you and all these half-wit friends?" He gestured to Ron and then, really setting him on edge, at Luna.

"You're really going to regret that," Harry said quietly. His fingers were still gripping the wand. Draco smiled slowly, and then started to make a move. In an instant Harry reacted. The wand went up, he shouted something, and even before he himself realized that anything had happened a large crowd had formed around the group and what Harry suddenly realized was a boy in a tuxedo, which wasn't terribly unusual except for the fact that this boy had the head of a braying donkey.

"I…I…" he started to back away.

"You're going to get detention for this for sure," said Ron. There were whispers then, things like 'no powers during school functions' and 'expelled for sure'.

"If you're going to go find Hermione you'd better do it now." He felt Luna lay her hand on his shoulder and, nodding, pushed through the sea of students and out into the main hall.

Harry had never been to the science classrooms before; beginner's science classes were housed away from the generators and lasers and whatever else it was that they used. But he knew that if he was going to find Hermione this would be the first place he would have to look.

He was halfway down the hall when he heard a sudden announcement break out over the loudspeaker.

"_All students are to return immediately to the Main Hall. Any student found wandering outside of the hall will be subject to extreme punishment."_

"_Now _I've done it!" thought Harry as he started to run. The entire school was looking for him now. He wondered if he'd be sent back to the Dursleys or if there was some sort of special place for failed superheroes.

"Harry!" He turned around to see Ron speeding down the hall toward him. "We've got to get back! Now!"

He slowed down. Ron almost slammed into him, and caught Harry by the arm when he was close enough.

"Am I really in that much trouble?" he moaned.

Ron was shaking his head. "No, not that. Zatanna took care of that before they even realized you'd taken off." He straightened up, composing himself for the shock of the imformation he was about to impart. "Get this, Harry…the school's been invaded!"

"What?" Harry glanced around the darkened corridors. "What do you mean?"

"There's a villain loose in here. One of Batman's big guys, Clayface. He's somewhere in the halls, parading around some sort of troll thing."

"A troll?" Harry listened for a moment, hearing nothing. "Then we really need to find Hermione, and tell her what happened!" He started to take off, Ron remaining stationary. "Well? Are you coming?"

After a few more seconds Ron nodded and joined him. They found the hall where the laboratories were housed, but before they could turn that way they heard a loud crashing sound followed by an enormous roar. Ron's already pale face became the color of chalk. Harry glanced down at his wand, remembering what had happened with Draco, and held on to it.

They crept around the corner. The light was on in one of the rooms, and they could tell without having to look inside that this was the source of the racket. "That door seals tight, like a vault. If we can lock him up inside…" Ron trailed off as there was another loud crash. Harry nodded his head and, on an unspoken signal, the two moved forward.

The creature was at least ten feet tall, its skin resembling molten plastic and writhing over its entire body. Harry positioned himself so that he had a hold on the edge of the door and then, right when he was about to slam it back behind him, he saw something move at the back of the room.

_Damn! Hermione's in there! _He thought to himself. Communicating that fact as best he could with Ron, Harry took a moment to think of his options. There was the hard way where he figured he might be able to create a diversion and outrun the monster and give Hermione a chance to escape. Then there was the suicidal way, which involved confronting the monster head on.

So, the hard way it was. He picked up a large metal rod that was laying across the lab table and, rearing back so that it would do the most damage possible, he slammed it down across Clayface's back.

The monster didn't so much as flinch. It did turn around however and, latching it's gaze on Harry, began to chuckle with a voice that sounded like footsteps on gravel. "RUN!" he screamed.

It didn't take much provocation for Ron. He took off in a flash, making Harry wonder briefly if he hadn't inherited some ability along with his younger sister. But Hermione didn't even budge, and before he'd moved two steps he turned back around.

She slowly moved to her feet, staring at Harry from her position on the far wall. Directly between them the monster stood. His attention was directed entirely at Harry, although he was aware that the moment he had shouted he'd made it aware somebody else was around.

Well, there went Plan A. Now it was time for the suicidal plan.

Harry ran at Clayface, giving himself enough of a magical boost that he landed directly on his back. "RUN, HERMIONE!" he shouted. This time she listened, and with a little shriek skittered toward the door. But she couldn't get around Clayface, who was flailing back and forth and warping his shape in an attempt to get at the small boy hanging on to his shoulders.

"Harry!" Ron had returned, and in a panic seemed to be searching the room for a weapon.

"Harry! His molecular structure is weakened by water!" shouted Hermione, seeming suddenly to come back into her senses.

"Water? Right!" Harry concentrated. "Retaw! Doolf! Niar!" The air around him seemed to be suddenly filled with a fine mist, but even though Clayface faltered it wasn't nearly enough to have any real effect.

Then, suddenly, Ron seemed to brighten. "You need water?" he said.

"Yes! I just said…"

But nobody was paying attention to her. Not because she was about to launch into a lengthy science lecture (though even when not under attack they weren't usually well-received), but because suddenly every pipe for rooms around was rattling loudly. Ron seemed to be deep in concentration, and then suddenly there was a loud whoosh and every drain and tap spewed forth a geyser that shot straight through the room and hit Clayface head on.

It was enough to have him drop to the ground and shrink in size. Hermione darted around him and Harry slid off. The water stopped when they grabbed Ron and the three of them left the room, but as they started down the hall they were ankle deep in the flood that Ron had created.

"That…was…effective…" Harry said as they turned a corner. But thanks for his praise was never returned because from the shadows emerged a tall figure with eyes that glowed white in the darkness.

"Have you seen Clayface?" he growled. His voice was deep and sinister, pretty much just as Harry had always imagined it would be.

"B-b-batman?" he stammered.

But he was moving away, straight in the direction that Hermione had pointed out to him, and before any of them could get away Zatanna stopped them dead in their tracks. Her generally cheerful demeanor had vanished for the time being, and with a sigh she clenched Harry's shoulder tight.

"What did you mean by ignoring a _direct command _to station yourself in the Main Hall?" she said. "You could have been seriously hurt, or…"

"It was my fault." Hermione stepped forward. "I wanted to prove that science is more useful than magic…that, with science, I could defeat him. But if it hadn't been for Harry and Ron I'd have been killed. They followed me…they were trying to convince me to go back to the Main Hall with them."

Harry and Ron exchanged looks of surprise. Hermione admitting that she was wrong seemed about as foreign to them as Hermione breaking a rule, but here she was doing both.

"Is that so?" she didn't look as if she believed them, not entirely, but after a few more moments sighed and seemed as if she had decided to let them go. After a moment more Batman had returned. His gaze passed along both Hermione and Ron, settling for a moment on Harry.

"I'll have somebody come and pick him up," he said. "You kids really did a number on him." Through the open part of his mask his lip twitched. Harry would almost have thought that he was smiling although something told him that this wasn't the sort of man who smiled.

"It was Ron," said Harry.

Batman seemed to consider this for a moment. "It seems like I wasn't needed after all," he said finally. He nodded to Zatanna. "You'll know where to find me." He began to walk away and after a steps stopped. He turned, with one final statement for Harry.

"That was good work. Your parents would be proud."


	11. Forging Alliances

**Harry Potter: A Brave Beginning**

**Author's Note:** Sorry it's been so long since I updated this story! I've been working on my Harry Potter/Doctor Who crossover and in general just trying to keep afloat with my own writing and everything. Haven't really thought about this story in forever, to be honest with you. But here you go! Hope you enjoy!

**Forged Alliances**

"Way to go, super-Potter!" a girl called from the other end of the room.

"Give it up for Aqua-Dude!" a boy shouted. It was Fred, and acknowledging him with a faint blush that reached all the way to his ears Ron gave his brothers and their friends a small bow before settling down at the breakfast table. Harry grinned at him and Ron grinned back.

Although they'd been ordered to complete secrecy after the events of Halloween night the story had gotten out. Harry, Hermione, and Ron had therefore been celebrated as heroes for the past week. Even Hermione, who usually regarded such things with a cool candor, couldn't help but seem impressed by the wave of popularity that followed that night.

"I can't believe everybody's still talking about that!" she whispered to Susan, who had sat down with them.

Susan shrugged. "Yeah, and they'll keep talking about it until they have something else to gossip about." She glanced up, seeing the slightly disappointed look on her friend's face. "Sorry. It's your first superhero thing." She paused again, searching for something to say. "Good for you!" she finally managed, the enthusiasm a little forced.

"It's all right," said Hermione. She leaned down, cupping her chin in her palm. "You've done lots of superhero-ey things. I suppose you just get used to it."

"Well…yeah, you do," said Susan. She speared a piece of sausage and nibbled delicately at it. "But it never gets old, trust me. And there's only ever one first."

Harry, who had been listening to this exchange for several minutes, blushed when he suddenly caught Hermione looking at him. He turned quickly away. Although their brief feud had ended the moment they defeated Clayface in the laboratories, they had yet to really speak since the incident.

He wasn't mad at her, of course, and as far as he could tell she wasn't mad at him. There was just an awkwardness there that hadn't been before. Harry was forced to wonder two things. The first, did she really think so little of magic? She had acted as if it was the most unimportant thing in the world, when to Harry it was becoming the center of his world.

And secondly, did he really think the same things about Hermione that he'd said? Although he knew that part of what he'd said was influenced by Draco and his stupid Jedi Mind Trick, or whatever it was, he also knew that Draco could only influence people's emotions. He couldn't make people believe things that weren't true.

So there had to be just a little part of him that thought Hermione really was a big science geek, and not as important as the rest of the supers. And if he really thought something like that, then how was he any better than Draco?

"Harry." Ron nudged him in the arm with a spoon, bringing him out of his thoughts. "Hello? You there?"

"Sorry." Harry turned his attention to what Ron had been trying to point out, the newest schedule. He picked his up, scanning it. With an irritated sigh, he leaned back in his chair.

"Constantine today," he said, not pleased in the least. "All of us."

"Oh. Fluffing fantastic," said Hermione. She stopped suddenly, eyes widening as her hands clapped over her mouth.

"Fluffing?" said Susan, raising one eyebrow. "Did you really just say fluffing?"

"I didn't mean to! I meant to say…well, I meant to say something pretty terrible, actually," said Hermione with a slight grimace. She stopped for a minute, then opened her mouth again. In a quiet voice, barely loud enough for anybody to hear her, she said, "Fluffing. Fluff! Uhm…spork!" She gasped, eyes widening in shock.

"I think Hermione's been hanging out with you too much," said Ron with amusement. "Fluffing sporks?"

"That's not what I said at all!" said Hermione. "I meant to…I mean I…well, if you must know, I was cursing!" she whispered the last part of this statement in a low hiss.

Luna leaned forward on the table, eyes wide with excitement. "Ooh! What kind of curse? Curses are fun!"

"I didn't mean that," said Hermione. "Here." She pulled out a piece of paper and a pen, and scribbled a word on the paper that began with an F and rhymed with ducking. She pushed it over and the others gasped, Ron and Harry laughing out loud despite themselves.

"You really said fluffing?" said Harry. Then he too clapped his hands over his mouth. He knew for a fact the word he had been trying to say had not been fluffing. "Uhm…fluff. Spork! Bongos…."

"Harry! Stop cursing!" said Hermione.

"What, like saying spork and bongos is really cursing?" said Harry.

"It is if spork and bongos really mean SPORK and BONGOS," said Hermione.

Harry stared at her for a moment. Then burst out laughing again. The look on her face was so perplexed, so utterly confused, that he couldn't help but find it funny. It was a few more minutes before he realized that he was speaking to her again, and really speaking to her again like he had before, for the first time in over a week.

"Hey, Ron." Harry took the piece of paper from Hermione and scribbled something on it, passing it over to Ron. His friend glanced at it, then realizing what it said his eyes widened and his ears grew bright pink. "I dare you to say that," said Harry with a grin.

"What? My mom would ground me for, like, the rest of my life for saying something like that. Then she'd take away my television. Then she'd kill me, because she'd be that ticked."

Harry sat back, looking thoughtful. "I'll give you a hundred bucks," he said.

"Sold." Ron took the piece of paper, leaning back. "I'll beat the spork out of you, fluffer! Aardvark helicopter budgie!" He stopped, looking stunned. "What the helicopter?" he blurted out.

The rest of the table had burst out laughing again. Even Luna, who was usually poised (if a little odd) had her hand clasped over her mouth, shoulders shaking with her small giggles. Before anybody could say anything else the bell rang and they gathered their things, making their way to Constantine's class.

The smell of cigarette smoke greeted them ten feet from the door. The man was standing beside the blackboard, a sour look on his face as the students piled in. Harry was the last into the room and pulled the door closed behind him, taking his seat as Constantine stared at them dully. His eyes were red, as if he hadn't slept in days. He finished his cigarette and stubbed it out on the table, grunting something unintelligible to the students as they settled themselves.

"I'm sure that at least a few of you have noticed that Zatanna decided to place a ward on the school whenever I'm on campus," he said. "So that a word that, let's say, start's with a sh- and ends with an it sounds like spork." He winced when the word came out of his mouth. "She made this decision on the basis of my kindly informing her it would be fluffing impossible…" he paused when a student giggled, glaring out into the room. "Impossible for me to lay off the 'naughty language', as our know-it-all but heavenly endowed calls it."

He lit up another cigarette, shaking out a match and dumping it unceremoniously in the trash can beside the desk. "So I may say a few things that sound…well…fluffing stupid," said Constantine. "But if any of you takes that to mean you can't take my fluffing class seriously, I will kick every one of your fluffing aardvarks from here to Kingdom Come." He paused in his speech, sniffing delicately. "Are we understood?"

When none of the students answered he waved a hand. "Right. So we're going to do some partnering up today. Two in a group, metahumans with mortals, magics with technowhatsits. And hurry your aardvarks up!" he said.

The classroom scrambled. Harry turned around, glancing at Hermione. "Partner?" he asked cautiously. Hermione seemed to hesitate. They both remembered that this had been the spot where they'd fought before. But seeing Seamus coming her way, Hermione seemed to quickly make up her mind. She nodded quickly, and moving down took a seat next to Harry.

Ron and Neville had paired up and Draco, a sour look on his face, glared at them from across the room.

"The reason we're pairing up like this," said Constantine, "is because all of you, by the end of this course, will be able to do some magic. Whether it's enough to save your sorry aardvark from getting fluffed up in battle, that's not for me to teach," he added. "But if you don't understand magic, you'll never be able to fight it. And that, you little fluffs, is what I'm here for."

He turned around and began drawing runes on the board. As Harry watched they seemed to ripple across the black surface, shimmering gently in the flourescent glow of the light. They seemed to form themselves into a thought that he couldn't quite grasp, resting just beneath his consciousness.

"Can anybody tell me what that says?" said Constantine, tapping at it with a piece of chalk.

"Fire!" gasped Hermione.

She had it right. The thought surprised Harry as, in his minds eye, he saw the words burst into flames. Constantine nodded. "The bushy-haired kid has it," he said. "These runes stand for fire. And anybody, with the right amount of concentration and effort, can summon it. Now you," he said, pointing at Harry. "Tell me what this means."

He began scribbling something else on the board. The runes formed a circle. It took him several moments before an image began to take shape in his head, before he began to understand what the runes meant. At the back of his thoughts he could almost see a shield forming behind the circle of letters.

"Er…protection?" he asked cautiously.

"Right," said Constantine. "Everybody take note. Technowhatsits and mortals, you're going to be working on summoning fire. Metahumans, magics, since you're more used to channeling other 'energies' you're going to hold a second circle to protect yourselves from being burned to a crisp." He took a deep drag of his cigarette. "I can't die, and I get paid whether or not you do, so keep that in mind if you think I'm going to step in and do your work for you."

Since it seemed like Constantine's speech was over, Harry turned his attention to Hermione. She had gone as pale as a sheet. "Uhm…Hermione?" Harry asked. "You okay?"

"I…" She shook her head. "I just don't think I can do this, that's all," she said. "I'm not a…"

"Listen, if Constantine say's it's possible for just about anybody," interrupted, "Then it must be like, ten times as possible for you to do it," said Harry. "You're just about the smartest person I've ever known."

Hermione blushed. "But this is different," she said.

Harry took a deep breath. He lowered his voice so that only she could hear him, leaning in. "Listen," he said. "If you want, I'll turn a little magic your way. Just enough so you get a little flicker."

"You can't!" Hermione looked first one way, and then the other. "That's cheating!" she hissed, as if cheating were the worst thing in the world one could be caught doing, right behind killing.

"Oh, come on," said Harry quietly. He glanced around the room. Neville had already begun marking the small symbols on a piece of paper at the center of his and Ron's desk. Elsewhere Susan was doing the same, and Luna was smiling at her partner with a far-off look, lazily tracing her own runes on the paper.

After a moment, Hermione relented. "Fine," she whispered. She pulled out a piece of paper and began marking it. When she finished, Harry marked the second grouping of symbols. Hermione took a deep breath and closed her eyes, placing her fingers on the paper. Harry followed suit.

"All right," Harry began. "So just concentrate on what you want," said Harry. "Imagine fire."

Hermione's eyes flashed open. "I thought you were doing it?" she whispered.

"Well, you have to know how it works, at least," said Harry.

Hermione bit her lip, but when Harry nudged her slightly underneath the table she shook herself and closed her eyes again. "All right, I'm focusing," she said.

"All right," said Harry. "Just think of fire. Hot, burning…you know, just…firey…"

"Gee, that's helpful," said Hermione with a nervous giggle.

Harry grinned. "Yeah, well. That's why you're the smart one. I'm just here because I look good."

Hermione snorted. She opened her eyes, sighing and pulling her hands away from the paper. "You're such a dork," she said after a moment.

"Yeah, well." Harry blushed, raking a hand through his hair. "Hermione…I wanted to say something. About the other day…"

"You don't have to say anything," Hermione interrupted. "You saved my life, Harry. That's more than enough."

"No." He shook his head. "It's not. You're brilliant, really brilliant Hermione. And…well, that stuff about you being a science geek…"

"But it's true," said Hermione gently. She was smiling as he looked up at her. "I mean, I know that Quantum Mechanics isn't exactly the coolest thing in the world," she said. "At least, not to somebody who can do cool stuff like shape shift, or talk to fish…" She stopped, cocking her head. "All right, so maybe I'm a little cooler than that," she said with a grin.

At that moment, as if their talking about him had caused it, a huge plume of flame went up between Neville and Ron. Ron leaned back quickly, smoke wafting away from where his eyebrows had been a few moments before. They were now neatly singed over. Constantine let out a long, low whistle as he walked over, clasping his hand on Ron's shoulder.

"That one got you, eh?" he said, tutting. "Should have been focusing more on that protective circle. But, way to go Neville," he said, nodding approval at the scared looking boy. "Who can tell me the biggest advantage to having command of a runic circle like that?" he asked.

"Because anybody without magical abilities can summon fire, the most basic of elements, as protection in a fight," drawled Draco lazily. Constantine looked over at him.

"That is exactly…wrong!" he said. A few jeers rose up from the students who'd encountered Draco over the past few weeks. "No, who can give me an answer that doesn't suck?" he asked.

Tentatively raising her hand, Hermione found herself almost face to face with Constantine.

"All right, little techie girl, going to give it a shot?" he asked.

"If we've one kind of magic," said Hermione, "then we can recognize it, even before a spell is used. And since fire is one of the most basic forms of magic, it's part of a lot of different spells."

Constantine blew out a thick cloud of smoke. It whirled around Harry and Hermione, engulfing them. After a moment, he nodded. "Good enough," he said. "Right, you brats. Get to work. And you, focus harder on that protective rune," he said, nudging Ron in the shoulder.

Harry and Hermione took their places at the runes one more. Hermione shot him a quick pleading glance. Harry nodded quickly, to assure her that he was still helping her.

In truth, he'd never had any intention of doing any such thing.

He remembered Zatanna teaching him magic and, before then, learning it on his own. It couldn't be forced, he knew, only urged on by deep concentration. It was that tranquil feeling he attempted to push toward her as she took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

He touched the protective circle and easily felt the runes come alive under his fingers. He focused on creating an invisible shield. "Just relax," he whispered, to both Hermione and himself. And then, surprising himself, he reached over and let his finger touch her hand.

All of a sudden a plume of fire shot straight up, reaching toward the ceiling and kept in a perfect column by the shield that Harry was holding in place. Hermione's eyes flashed open and she looked straight at him, mouth open in an 'O' of surprise. "You didn't…" she stammered. "That was…"

Constantine walked over, examining the column of fire as it finally died back down. A charred ring was left on the paper and, underneath, the desk. "Wow," he said. "Impressive," he added. "And I just expected you to cheat."

"So then my hand touched hers, and it was like…whooosh!" said Harry, waving his hands for emphasis.

Ron sat up on his bed, looking over at him. "You don't have a crush on her, do you?" he said.

"What?" Harry looked stunned. He swung his legs off his own bed, turning to stare at Ron. "No, of course not," he said. "I mean, she's just a friend. But she's really smart, and nice. I've never really known anybody like her."

Ron shrugged. He picked up a comic book and began flipping through it. "Sounds like a crush to me," he said.

"Like you don't have a thing for Susan Bones?" said Harry.

Ron began to flush, turning pink from his nose to his ears. "Who told you thought?"

Harry shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you were totally checking her out in her uniform on Halloween," he said. "You know. When you were dressed up in that sailor outfit."

Wincing, Ron threw the comic book in Harry's direction. "Please don't remind me," he said. He sat up too, looking over at Harry. "You know what we need?" he said finally.

"I have no idea," said Harry. "But I'm sure you're going to tell me."

"We need a guy night. You, me, Neville, Dean…well, he's sort of a guy," said Ron. "Seamus too, I guess. Fred and George, even." He clapped his hands suddenly. "I know! I can't believe I didn't think of it before!"

"What?" said Harry, suddenly interested.

"We should go camping!" he said.

Harry frowned. The idea sounded interesting, and he'd like to try it, but there was no way that something like that was going to be allowed and he told Ron as much. His friend shook his head.

"No, they won't care as long as we have an escort. It's a Friday night, we could have a couple of evenings out in the woods no problem. And we can even take along some homework. What better time to practice Mr. Constantine's fire thing, right?" he said.

"Well…" said Harry slowly/ "We could try it…"

Ron shot up. "I'm going to call my dad. He can arrange everything for us."

Before Harry knew it, Ron had called his father and his father had called the school, and he and Ron had gone around to all their friends to see who would be able to join them for the weekend outing. Neville had gone back to Gotham City for the weekend, and Seamus politely told them that Neville had left access to his PS3 and that was preferable to the great outdoors, thank you very much.

When the final go-ahead came down from the Headmaster, they had convinced Dean, Fred and George to come along on their excursion. After a hasty job packing away anything they were going to need, they made their way down to the great hall.

"So who's our escort going to be?" asked Fred, a mischievous expression on his face.

"Me," said Artie, appearing at the door. "And someone important. She'll be here any minute. So behave," he added with a frown for Fred and George.

"And guess what guess what guess what!" said a young girl's voice. Ron groaned and, a moment later, he saw why. A young redhead was standing beside Artie, bouncing from foot to foot excitedly. "Mom said I could come too!"

"Da-a-ad!" Ron moaned. "This was supposed to be a guy thing!" he said.

"Well, too bad. It's no fair you going on a trip if we can't come, too," said a voice from up the stairs. Hermione appeared, dressed in a long-sleeved shirt and jeans with a pack slung over one shoulder. Luna stood beside her, looking somewhat hastily thrown together in a half-buttoned flannel nightshirt and a khaki skirt. Susan stood there too, a faint smile on her face and a bow and arrow over one shoulder.

Harry glanced over his shoulder at Ron to see that, sure enough, he was blushing.

"All right. So who else is coming?" asked Ron miserably.

The door to the school opened slowly. A beautiful woman with flowing black hair stood there, eyes shining a bright blue even in the dim light. She smiled when she caught sight of the kids. Harry's mouth dropped open.

"Wonder Woman," confirmed Ron's dad. "But you can call her Miss Diana."


	12. Wilderness Woes

**Harry Potter: A Brave Beginning**

**Author's Note: **Working on this story because I realize I've sadly neglected it and, even though my Doc series gets more reviews, this one is probably my most popular story in terms of hits. Please review and give me the motivation to keep writing, lol! Otherwise this story may disappear into the void, like all my others seem to do.

**Wilderness Woes**

Harry did his best to conceal his smirk as Ron stared sullenly at the girls making their way down the hall. Before they reached the main floor they were joined by several others, from first year on to the senior class, all bedecked in camping gear as if the trip had been planned for a month rather than a few hasty hours.

"This is dumb," Ron sniffed.

Harry clapped him on the shoulder. There were more boys appearing too. "Suck it up," he said. "It'll be more fun with more people along, anyway," he said.

"Yeah. And Wonder Woman," he said, glancing over his shoulder. She wasn't in uniform, and that was a relief thought Harry as he stared at the statuesque woman as she spoke to Ron's dad, because she was easily the prettiest woman he'd ever seen.

"I think we're supposed to call her Miss Diana," said Harry, shaking his head after a moment to stop himself from staring.

"Yeah. Whatever," said Ron. He glared as Hermione game over to him, smiling brightly.

"I always did like camping," she said. She brushed hair out of her eyes, smiling at Harry. "How about you?"

"Err…well, I've never really been…" he started, suddenly feeling stupid without knowing why.

"Oh, you'll have fun, trust me," she said. "I even had Luna conjure up the stuff to make s'mores from the kitchen," she said.

"Are there even woods big enough around this place to fit all of us?" said Ron miserably, as he looked out at what now appeared to be half the school. Harry realized, with a start, that most of the students not in attendance were upper years who had the weekends off. He nudged Ron.

"Don't you think it's a bit strange?" he asked. "The school's practically going to be empty!"

Ron shrugged. He was still getting over the blow of losing his guys only camping trip, and to be joined not only by the girl he was trying to get Harry away from but his annoying little sister as well. Harry rolled his eyes, realizing that trying to get any point across to Ron at that time was a futile effort.

"All right, everyone!" said Diana brightly, clapping her hands. "We're going to have a pleasant little camping trip. So let's all head to the telepods…"

"The telepods?" said Harry, blinking in surprise. He looked around at the rest of the students, who to his relief seemed about as surprised as he was.

Ron glanced back at his dad, who grinned broadly, then yelped as Ginny suddenly appeared beside him, giving him her most innocent smile.

"Hey big bro," she said, clasping her hands behind her back.

"You stay away from me," said Ron in as menacing a manner as possible, which fell flat when confronted with Ginny's wide-eyed look of innocence.

"What? I didn't do anything…"

"Of course you did," he said, narrowing his eyes. "You've always done something."

"Nuh-UH!" she said, sticking out her tongue. "Did not, did not!" she said in a sing-song voice. Ron reached out and pushed her back with the heel of his palm, giving Harry an exasperated look.

"Be grateful you're an only child," he said with a sigh.

The students started clamoring forward onto the transporter decks, disappearing in groups of four and five to who-knew-where. Harry turned around to look for Hermione in the group.

"Hey, there you are…" he started, and then froze. Up on the staircase there was a dark shadow. It's eyes glinted at him for just a moment. "Look at that!" he said quickly.

Hermione glanced over her shoulder, but by the time she looked whatever it was had gone. "Just somebody who decided to stay behind," she said with a small shrug.

"No, it was…" Harry stopped mid-sentence. He didn't even know how he'd been going to finish that sentence, because he had no clue what it was he thought he'd seen. He shook his head. "Come on," he urged her, and Hermione pushed through the throng until she joined Harry, Dean, and a scowling on the deck.

There was the familiar faint shimmer of transportation as they were jettisoned through the air, their particles to reassemble wherever the teleporter saw fit. When Harry's vision settled back and he could get a proper look at the landscape around him, he was stunned.

They were standing in the middle of a lush jungle, huge tropical flowers blossoming every few inches in the thick overgrowth. Nearby there was a sandy beach, and the ocean came up to lap at its shores. "Not my home," said Diana thoughtfully, a smile on her face, "but close enough that I can almost smell it!" She bunched her fists and placed them at her waist, looking out to the water.

"It's so beautiful!" said Hermione. "I haven't seen the ocean since I was a little girl."

"I've never seen it," said Harry. He looked out at it, the moonlight reflecting in gentle arcs on the waves. "It's…big," he said after a long moment. "And wet."

Hermione giggled. She reached out and pushed him lightly on the arm, making Harry blush despite himself. When she turned her back Ron whipped around, shooting Harry as dirty a look as he could muster. His made mocking gestures, tapping Harry on the arm himself. Harry pushed him off, narrowing his eyes.

"If we weren't so close to the ocean I might have to do something about you, fish boy," said Harry, although there was no real malice in his words.

Ron grinned. "I'd like to see you try, Bambi," he shot back.

"All right, kids," said Artie after a few moments. Everybody reluctantly went silent and turned to look at him. "We've got tent set-ups across the island. Miss Diana here tells me that you've all gotten a little training in fire starting. Those of you that feel like you can do the job without blowing yourselves up, have at it. As for the rest of you please, please wait for me before doing anything."

Harry and Ron exchanged looks. "Hey, Dean, going to share a tent with us?" asked Ron as Dean began to pass him by.

"Yeah, sounds great," said Dean. "Too bad Seamus couldn't come. Or Neville."

"Yeah. But it doesn't look like Malfoy showed, so I'm not exactly upset," said Ron.

The three of them found one of the tent setups that had, as if by magic, appeared at even points in the ground that covered the small island. Ron leaned down, poking at it gently as if that would do anything. One of the arms sprung up suddenly, knocking him back several feet. He landed with a soft thud on the ground.

Dean reached down, returning the tent leg to the ground. "That appears to have been ineffective," he said calmly.

"No, really?" said Ron, slowly getting up and brushing himself off.

There was a sudden blur that passed all of them up and the tent began to lift itself up, billowing slightly. "Stop that," Ron snapped. The tent fell back and Ginny appeared, bent over with her tongue sticking out at her brother.

"Dorkface," she said. "You're boooring."

"You're not even supposed to be here, runt," said Ron, rolling his eyes.

"Lay off her," said Harry. "She's just a kid." He thought back to all the times that Dudley had refused to let him play with him and his friends, back before he'd realized he didn't really want to be friends with people like that anyway. "

"I am NOT a kid!" said Ginny. She narrowed her eyes.

"Er…of course not," said Harry quickly.

Ginny tossed her hair over her shoulder and stuck her nose up in the air. "Boys," she said, before disappearing in a flash in the opposite direction. Through trial and error, mostly error, Harry and the other managed to get their tent erected. When it was finally done Harry sent Dean and Ron out into the woods to gather kindling, and stooping low built a small roaring fire at the front of their campsite.

"Hey, Harry?" called Hermione. He peered through the woods, finally spotting her campsite a stone's throw away.

"Yeah Hermione, what's up?"

"Little help with the fire?" she said.

"Hey, after today I thought you could do it," he said as he started off in her direction.

"Yeah. And you can do math problems too, if you want. But how about we just do what we're best at?" she said, fluttering her lashes in a way that made Harry want to gulp and take off running in the opposite direction.

He started their fire. "Where's Luna? She could have built a fire for you, no problem," Harry asked as he stood up, looking around.

"She's off with Susan, hunting," said Hermione. She suddenly appeared nervous, something that surprised Harry. "Listen, there's something I wanted to ask you…" she began.

An arrow suddenly shot through the greenery. It lodged in the base of a tree near where Harry and Hermione stood, three coconuts perfectly pierced through the side hanging on to it. Falling so lightly they could barely hear her tread, Susan leapt out of the trees and moved toward her arrow, plucking it from the tree.

"Good shot," said Harry.

"Yeah?" said Susan. She pulled the smallest coconut from the arrow, taking a long deep drink from the open hole on one end. When she was done she wiped a hand across her mouth and sighed. "Tell Ron," she said finally, winking. "Bet he'd like to hear the story."

"Of your daring and dangerous coconut raid?" said Harry.

"Absolutely," said Susan.

"I'll keep that in mind. Hey, Luna," he called out, waving up to where Luna sat perched in a tree. She smiled and waved back at him. He crossed back to his own campsite, where Ron was arranging the sleeping bags and Dean was sitting across from the fire with a burning marshmallow speared at the end of a long stick.

"I think it's done," said Harry, pointing at the flaming glob of blackened sugar.

"Oh?" said Dean. He pulled the stick up and blew it out. Then, using his fingers, he pulled the blackened mess off and ate it all in one bite.

"Mmm. Good," he said with a satisfied grin.

Harry exchanged a look with Ron who, even in his perplexed state, couldn't help but be amused by his antics.

Over the next hour they set up their base. They were visited once by Artie, once by Diana, and once by Fred and George, who left them feeling as if they'd traveled back and forth in time at least eight times. When they'd finally gotten everything set up they all reclined around the campfire, Dean continuing to make charcoal marshmallow snacks, and Harry and Ron gently roasting marshmallows for s'mores.

"See?" said Ron. "This is what I was talking about. Just us guys. No distractions, none of that girly stuff…" started. All of a sudden there was a loud shriek in the woods. The boys looked at each other then, deciding that curiosity got the better of isolation, scrambled off in the source of the noise.

Angelina Johnson, a metahuman whose ability Harry couldn't remember, had tied some sort of golden rope around Fred and was pulling it tight around him, a look of triumph on her face. "Tell me who you like!" she said. "Come on, admit it and I won't even make you tell your deepest, darkest secret," she added.

"Well, I like you of course," said Fred. Angelina seemed to beam, her eyes glittering brightly. Then Fred continued, "My biggest secret of course is that I sleep with a Teddy bear," he said. A cluster of girls had surrounded Angelina and at this point several shrieked again, clueing Harry in to the earlier source of the chatter.

"What's going on?" he asked Ron.

"Bad news. That's Wonder Woman's truth-telling lasso thingy,," said Ron. "It'll…well…"

"Force you to tell the truth?" said Harry. He watched as Angelina unwound it from around Fred, leaning forward to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Yech," said Ron, in apparent disgust.

"All right, who's next!" called Angelina excitedly. The girls began to cheer as all boys in the area suddenly seemed to clear out. Harry and Ron kept out of sight as another girl took the lasso. One of the mortal crew was next to be caught up, literally, in the girls' scheme, and after several moments fighting it he was forced to make the biting admission that he had a thing for one of the alien girls, who stared blankly at him for several minutes, assessing her reaction.

Several other boys were put through the process. After a little while, Susan, Hermione and Luna emerged in the woods and watched the proceedings with mild interest. In his head, Harry cheered Dean on as he was caught and, through clever wording and his shapeshifting ability, managed to escape the girls' clutched to their obvious disappointment.

"But he's so cute. You know, for an alien," said one girl.

"Hey!" said another, and then they all broke out into giggles.

"All right. Who's going to be next?" said one of the girls. She looked around. Then, spotting something in the bushes, she pointed towards Harry and Ron. "There! Get him!" she cried.

"Holy…" Ron stammered, attempting to run when he jerked back. Harry looked down and saw a streak of red grabbing hold of him and pulling back.

"Uh…Ron…" Harry started.

"Ginny, you little brat! Let me go!" Ron shouted. But it was no use. Ginny pulled him back and the girl wielding the lasso was able to loop it over him, pulling it tight. Harry watched as Ron suddenly went rigid, a strange look coming into his eyes.

"All right," said the interrogator. "Let's start. Who do you think is the prettiest teacher in the school?" she asked.

"Black Canary," Ron answered automatically, then flushed a deep red. He visibly winced and from where he sat Harry could almost feel his pain.

The girls all giggled. Susan nudged Hermione and the pair exchanged grins. "All right," said the girl. "Next question. Which girl our age do you think is prettiest?" she asked.

"Lavender Brown," shot back Ron. The girl in question looked up quickly, a faint blush coming over her cheeks as she looked at him.

"Ooh," said the girl. "So you have a crush on Lavender?"

"No," said Ron. "I have a crush on Susan." The look of horror that came over his face was instantaneous. He sent Harry a pleading look, and on the other end of the clearing Susan and Hermione were both laughing, doubled over with amusement, as Luna looked on quizzically.

Harry was too caught up in his friend's torment to notice that, when Ron had glanced over at him, the girls had caught sight of him off in the clearing. "Potter next!" the girl cried.

He stopped, the cold realization of what would happen next freezing him to the spot just long enough that he felt a hard tug on his wrist before he could even think of running away. He looked down and there was Ginny, grinning wildly and pulling him with an unforeseen strength back towards the girls.

They released Ron from the lasso, leaving him stammering and staring first at Susan, then at the ground, and then at his friend. Harry was shaking his head, as the girl swung the lasso and pulled it tight around him. All of a sudden he felt himself relax, staring at the girl holding the lasso.

"Right, Potter," she said. "Let's get started. Who do you think the prettiest teacher in school is?" she giggled.

"Zatanna," he answered quickly, then felt himself turning a deep crimson. Luna smiled at this, her typical airy look of mild indifference.

"Well of course," said one of the older girls. "She does have…you know…a particularly large set of achievements," she said, making an hourglass shape with her hands in the air.

Harry wasn't certain if he'd ever really blushed before in his life, but he felt his face getting hot as the girls hooted with laughter at this comment.

"All right. Prettiest student," said the girl.

"Luna," Harry answered, surprising himself. He hadn't really realized he thought of his friend as pretty, but glancing over at her he suddenly saw her large blue eyes and wavy blonde hair. She smiled at him, but didn't seem particularly affected by the revelation. In fact, she seemed to be slightly perplexed for a moment when their eyes met, as if she'd never really considered that anybody could or would find her pretty. After a long moment she shrugged, ignoring Susan nudging her.

Hermione, however, frowned slightly. She was biting her lip as if something were bothering her, and Harry suddenly found himself feeling two things at once. The first was terror, because he knew what the next question was going to be. The second was surprise because, even though he'd denied it to Ron, he knew what the answer to that question was going to be.

He had a crush on Hermione. It surprised him, even though thinking about it he realized that he must have felt the way he did for a while. He turned his glance away from her, wondering wildly if their friendship would manage to survive the impact of his hurried admission.

"So," said the girl slowly. "Is it Luna you have a crush on? Or…somebody else?" she said.

"I…"

"I think that's enough." Diana stepped into the clearing, her arms crossed over her chest. The girls shrieked and disbursed as she grabbed the lasso and slowly unwound it from around Harry. "Girls, girls," she said with a slight shake of her head. "You can't force these boys to tell the truth. It takes all the fun out of the chase, in the long run. It's like hunting a caged animal," she said, as she removed the lasso with a final flick.

"Uhm…sorry, Miss Diana," said the girl.

"You should know, Cho," said Diana, staring down the girl who had been holding the wand. "Being a fellow Amazon."

The girl flushed, nodding slightly. "Yes, of course, my Princess," she said, her voice a little softer.

Diana nodded. "All right, everybody get back to your camp. Let's have some good, clean fun for the rest of the weekend."

As everybody began to go their separate ways, Harry managed to peel Ron off of the ground and pull him with him toward their camp, Dean appearing out of the bushes to follow in behind them. "Stupid girls," said Ron bitterly.

"I bet you don't think Susan's that stupid," Harry teased.

"Oh, right?" said Ron. He stopped, forcing Harry to look at him. "And who were you going to admit to having a thing for?" he asked. "I bet I know…"

"I was just going to say I don't have a crush on anybody," said Harry. He turned away from Ron and started toward their camp again. Ron kept on making comments that implied he knew more than what Harry was letting on, but Harry did his best to ignore them. They finally got back to their tent, the fire safely burning where Harry had left it.

He looked across the way and saw the fire burning at Hermione's site. She was sitting in front of it, glancing in his direction. Their eyes met and both turned quickly away.

What was he going to do? he thought. There was no way he was going to admit that he had a crush on one of his best friends. What if she didn't like him? And, worse, what if she did? Because there was no going back if she liked him too.

Harry hadn't had many friends before. Hermione had really been the first, Ron the second, and anybody else he'd met at school had come after the two of them. And Hermione and Ron were really the best. A part of him recoiled at the idea that something so stupid as a crush could mean he'd lose one of the best friends he'd ever had.

But then again…he thought about the night they had fought Clayface. He hadn't realized it then, but he'd been so driven to protect her that he couldn't even guess what he'd have done if Ron's attack with the water hadn't done him in

And that was another worry. Ron had been the hero that night. Ron had been there just as much as Harry had in the past few weeks. What if Hermione had a thing for him, instead of Harry?

Morning shone bright and early, the soft sounds of the jungle waking the three boys from their sleep. After a quick freshening up, they met the other students on the beach to learn that they would be splitting off into partners to trek through the woods. The initial announcement was met with horror by all the students when Diana, with a smug grin, added that the pairs would be boy-girl.

Hermione immediately went to Harry's side, before either of them remembered the events of the evening before. Then Hermione's face fell a little and Harry tried his hardest not to blush and to act as if everything were perfectly normal.

Hermione took the map, and rigged up a sort of primitive GPS with a handful of scrap metal from her pack, before they even started off into the forest.

"So…shall we get started?" said Hermione.

"Uh…yeah," said Harry. He glanced over at Ron, who Lavender had paired up with almost immediately and whom, it appeared, was going to be trying her hardest to convince Ron that he did in fact have a crush on her, and not Susan.

They started off into the forest. "I just wanted to say, that was a pretty dirty trick the rest of the girls pulled last night," said Hermione. She brushed a strand of hair out of her face, glancing down at the ground.

"Yeah. It kind of was," said Harry.

She glanced over at him. "I guess…you were lucky that Diana got there before you told people who you had a crush on," she said.

"I don't have a crush on anybody," said Harry quickly. He saw Hermione's shoulders stiffen, and sighed. "I mean, there's people I think are nice, but doing the boyfriend/girlfriend thing just isn't a big deal, you know?" he said.

"Yeah," said Hermione. She stopped speaking, and they walked in silence for almost twenty minutes. They forced their way through the brush, Harry using the occasional spell where helpful, and Hermione monitoring the gadget she'd made with an unnatural devotion.

"I just wanted to ask one thing," asked Hermione finally. "If you had a crush…I mean, if there was somebody you liked but…you know…you didn't want to do the boyfriend/girlfriend thing…you'd tell her, wouldn't you? When you were finally ready?" She stopped and turned around, her eyes searching his.

Harry took a deep breath. "Yeah," he answered after a long moment. "I definitely would. Because…well, if she was that great of a girl…and, you know, she'd have to be…well, then she'd mean more to me than pretty much anything in the world. So of course I would."


	13. A Flash of Gold

**Harry Potter: A Brave Beginning**

**Author's Note:** Just so you know, I've fixed the issue with the italics in the last chapter. Thanks, Twylite, for pointing that out. I don't often go back and reread them once they're posted. A lot has been happening with me since I posted that last chapter and it's the main reason I haven't been able to update as often as I would like. I've actually been taking on a few professional writing jobs, here and there, so there hasn't been time for my little 'hobby'. Anyway, I had a little time tonight so I'm posting. Hope you enjoy.

**A Flash of Gold**

After their brief exchange, Harry realized that Hermione seemed to feel a lot more comfortable than she had before. They were back to speaking like normal, something that had been difficult since the outburst that had taken place in Constantine's class.

"So why do you think they ushered everybody out of the school?" asked Harry as they came into an isolated copse.

"Hmm?" Hermione turned around and glanced at him. "What do you mean?"

"I was thinking about it. Ron just suggested a camping trip for a few of the guys. Then all of a sudden we're on this island with over half of the school. Doesn't it seem like they wanted to clear us out or something?"

"Oh, that," said Hermione. "Hang on, I think I want to take a break." She lifted her pack off of her shoulders and laid it on the bare ground, shrugging as she sat down next to it. Harry followed suit and digging inside pulled out one of the wrapped sandwiches he'd picked up that morning for their lunch. Hermione took half when he offered it, nibbling at one corner thoughtfully. "I was wondering that too. I think it might have something to do with the Halloween incident."

"You mean Clayface?" Harry asked. Hermione nodded.

Not much had been said, at least officially, about exactly what Clayface had been doing in the school or how he'd gotten there. Harry hadn't really thought about it. He'd had too many other things on his mind. "So you think it's a security thing?" he asked. "Like, looking for someplace in the school where he could have gotten in?"

Hermione shook her head. "It's got to be bigger than that," she said. "I've seen the schematics for the school's security system. It's probably the second most highly guarded place in the world."

Harry stared at her in amazement. "And what's the first?" he asked.

"The actual Justice League headquarters," Hermione answered. She pulled out a thermos and poured both herself and Harry a cup of juice. "Anyway, the point is a villain like Clayface couldn't have done it on his own. He had to have had help. And it had to have been somebody who knew his way into the school."

"What, like a student?" Harry asked.

"Uh uh," said Hermione. "A student can't bring guests into the school. Only a member of the staff can. Or somebody really skilled with illusions. You know, somebody able to trick the system."

Harry frowned. He'd almost been hoping it had been somebody like Draco. In that case there would have been no hope but to have been expelled, and then Harry would finally have been rid of him for good. Then the full implication of Hermione's words hit him. "So it's got to be a teacher?" he said in surprise.

"A teacher, or anybody else who works for the school," she said.

"But they're all heroes!" said Harry in surprise. "Why would any of them do that?"

"They may be heroes, but none of them are perfect," said Hermione with a small sigh. Harry lingered on this thought for a moment, trying and failing to think of even one person who he thought it might be. Then he stopped.

"Wait," he said. "What about Constantine?" he asked.

"Constantine?" Hermione narrowed her eyes, as if examining him mentally. "I don't know," she said. "He's nasty, certainly," she said. "And he curses a lot. But I don't know if he'd do something like that. I mean, he did take the job to help us out," she said.

"He took the job because he owed somebody something," said Harry. "At least, that's what he said. I don't know about you, but it doesn't seem to me like he really wants to be there."

A faint rustle in the bushes disrupted Hermione just as she was about to say something else. Ron appeared through the leaves, soaked from head to toe and glancing over his shoulder. Harry jumped up. "What happened?" he asked.

"I escaped Lavender," he said with a grimace.

"You didn't leave her alone in the woods!" gasped Hermione in shock. Ron blanched, his face turning bright red to match his hair.

"Of course not!" he said. "We ran into Cho and Cedric Diggory," he said. "I managed to slip away. We were close enough to the shore that I swam halfway around the island. I just surface over there," he added, pointing back towards the direction he'd come from. "Then I heard you guys talking."

"Well, you can come with us if you want," said Harry. "But you're probably going to get in trouble for leaving Lavender like that," he added.

Ron shook his head. "It's worth it, trust me. She may be one of the prettiest girls in school but she just doesn't know how to shut up! I don't even know half of the things she was talking about. Who the heck is Justin Bieber anyway?" he asked.

Hermione broke out into giggles. "Oh no!" she gasped through her fits of laughter. "She didn't!"

"And then she was talking about how she wants to become a famous singer and use that as her secret identity when she gets out of school. Like some sort of weird Hannah Montana thing."

At this Harry and Hermione exchanged a glance and both were laughing as hard as they could. "That's just awful!" said Hermione finally.

"Yeah, well. Cho didn't seem to mind having her around and Cedric's a pretty nice guy anyway, so it's not like she's going to be wandering around all alone in the forest."

He sat down with Harry and Hermione on the forest floor, finding a patch of sunlight and planting himself in it in an effort to dry off quicker. They shared the last of the their lunch with him and were just about to head off when Harry heard a faint beeping from deep in the bottom of his bag.

"What's that?" he asked.

Ron shrugged. "Cell phone?" he asked.

"I don't have one," Harry said. He pulled out everything in his bag to find a small, sleek device with a small bat symbol at the center of it. He fumbled with it for a moment before it split in half, revealing Neville Longbottom's face in the middle of a small screen.

"You finally answered!" came his voice from the small object. "I've been trying to get a hold of you for an hour."

"What the heck is this?" Harry asked.

"I stuck it in with your things before you left in case I needed to call you," said Neville. "There's been some weird things going on at the Academy in the past day. Mr. Wayne…I mean, Batman…he arrived just a little while after you guys left. All of the students who stayed at the school got put into lockdown."

"Lockdown?" Hermione leaned over Harry's shoulder so that she could see Neville on the small screen. "What do you mean lockdown?"

"Nobody's allowed out of their rooms. Draco's furious. I could hear him screaming about calling his father for an hour. Even I'm not allowed out," he said.

"You see?" Hermione hissed, referencing their earlier conversation. Harry nodded.

"So why are calling us?" asked Harry.

"Because I think you need to find Wonder Woman and tell her that something's happened," said Neville. "I heard a lot of noise about an hour ago. Like…explosions and stuff," he said. "I can't get out of this room to find out what's going on. It's sealed tight."

Explosions? Harry exchanged looks of alarm with both Ron and Hermione. He didn't have a good feeling about this, and neither it seemed did his friends.

"Do you know where Wonder Woman is?" asked Harry, turning to Hermione. She shook her head quickly.

"She should already be at base camp two, waiting for us," said Ron. He pointed in the direction that he and Hermione had been heading all morning, where the entire school was supposed to be meeting up after their trek through the woods.

"We need to get there fast, then," said Hermione. The three of them packed up quickly, throwing their things over their shoulders. They took off at a run through the underbrush, realizing very quickly that this part of the island obviously wasn't made for moving quickly. They stopped after less than a half hour of this, their shins scraped up and bloodied from the sharp thorns and leaves of the woods.

Harry stooped over, clutching at a stitch that was making his sides ache. "This isn't working," he said.

"Obviously," said Hermione, plucking a handful of twigs and leaves out of her hair.

"Isn't there something you can do?" asked Ron, glancing over at Harry. "You are the magic user after all."

Harry stood up slowly, trying to think. For just a moment he contemplated starting a fire, realizing that he had no amount of the control it would require to clear away the brush without hurting any of his fellow students. Besides, he didn't know where they were anyway. Ice could make the trees more slippery, but it would make the path more slippery as well. That would put them in even more danger.

Then all of a sudden it came to him. He didn't know if he'd be able to hold the form very well; he'd never been able to in class. But it was the one thing he could try. He quickly slung his pack off of his shoulders and pushed it at Ron, who stared at him owlishly for a moment as Harry turned away, squeezing his eyes shut.

He heard Hermione start to say something, and then heard Ron tell her to be quiet. Then the world around him went blank as he focused on the form locked away, deep inside his mind. He took a deep breath, and all of a sudden he felt an immense shift in the world around him. He didn't have to see himself to know that it was happening. He was becoming the stag.

His eyes blinked open. He was slightly shorter now, at waist level with Ron who was right behind him. He couldn't understand what his friends were saying, though there was a faint sense of recognition with the words. He was able to realize, with the part of his mind that was still human, that he was hearing the world with different ears.

A riot of sensations overcame him as the sounds and smells of the forest took on different meaning. He pondered it for a moment, letting himself be taken in my the part of himself that had become beast. And then it was over, and he remembered what it was that he was meant to be doing.

He took off with a galloping leap. The forest flashed by him as he ran, gracefully loping over the underbrush and through the trees. He thought he glimpsed others in the forest, once or twice, but blocked them out of his mind.

Harry didn't know how long he'd run, but finally he approached the edge of the forest and emerged out onto a long, narrow stretch of beach. He stumbled as he bounded out of the woods, tumbling over himself and rolling down the ridge until he found himself staring up at the sky, human eyes behind human eyeglasses, and taking deep ragged breaths as he came back to himself.

"Miss Diana!" he said, sitting up quickly. He glanced around, seeing a makeshift tent several yards away. He ran up to it, pulling aside the canvas to glance inside.

Mr. Weasley sat there, playing with some piece of metal. He stopped what he was doing and looked up. "You're a bit early!" he said with a laugh.

"Sir! I need to speak to Wonder Woman. I think that something might have happened," he said.

Artie sat up, the project he'd been working on abandoned. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I got a message from Neville at the school. He said it was on lockdown," Harry managed to stammer out. Artie looked puzzled, then shook his head.

"You kids. Too smart for your own good. Yes, the schools on lockdown. It was going to happen anyway, but when Ron proposed this little field trip the big Three decided it would be best to get as many of you out of the castle as possible." He looked at the little device as Harry got it out of his pocket. "Who did you say gave that to you?" he asked.

"Neville Longbottom."

"Ah. That explains it. The new Robin," said Arthur. "I'm sorry if you were alarmed. But like I said, it was planned. Now why don't you have a seat. I'll grab you a soda while we wait for the others. And…hey, weren't you with Hermione?"

"I left her with Ron in the woods," said Harry quickly. "Sir…I'm sorry, but you just aren't listening to me. This isn't about the lockdown. I think something else has happened," said Harry.

Artie glanced up at him, peering over his glasses. "All right. What is it?"

Harry told him about the message, and about the explosion that Neville said he had heard. That got Artie's attention, and after only a moment's thought he nodded. "You're right. We do need to get Wonder Woman," he said. He pushed past Harry and out into the sunlight, glancing up into the sky. "Not sure where she got off to. She's around," he said. Then, suddenly, he caught sight of a brightly colored streak in the sky. "There!" he shouted. He began to wave his hands, but the streak moved by too quickly for him to catch her attention.

Harry looked up. And then, without really thinking, he felt the world shift around him again and he was lifting up in the air, a sudden feeling of weightlessness overcoming him. He followed the streak of color, and as he came near it slowed and Wonder Woman stopped in mid air, looking in surprise at him.

"Why, hello there," she said. "Who are you?" She reached out, her fingers brushing the feathery tips of his wings.

His wings?

Wait a minute.

He had wings?

The realization came to him suddenly and then he was falling, a cloud of golden feathers surrounding him in his rapid descent. Harry blinked in and out of consciousness as he sped toward the water, until he felt arms wrapping around him and pulling him back up into the air just moments before plunging into the sea.

"You better watch out, using that if you can't control it," said Wonder Woman as she set him down gently on the beach. Harry fell to his knees, hands on the ground and gasping for breath.

"Diana!" Artie rushed over, face pale and eyes wide in shock. He whispered something to her and she stood back suddenly. Without saying another word she nodded and took off, disappearing in the clue blue of the sky.

"Harry!" Two voices shouted his name in unison and he turned to see Ron and Hermione come stumbling out of the forest, their clothes torn and scratches covering them from head to toe. Harry looked first at them, and then at Artie as he came over.

"What happened?" he finally managed to get out. His throat felt dry and foreign to him. He realized, with a sick feeling, that it had just had to reconstruct itself from the way that it had been before.

"You just changed into the biggest damned eagle I've ever seen," said Artie. He leaned over, taking Harry by the arm, and helped him to his feet, brushing away some of the sand. "And bright gold too," he said, plucking a feather from Harry's shirt and holding it out to him.

Harry took it, staring in wonder at the golden feather. He turned it first one way and then the other, watching it glimmer in the daylight. "That was you?" said Hermione, reaching out to take it from him. Here eyes were wide and her cheeks were pale. "You mean you have more than one shapeshifting form?" she said. "Why didn't you tell us?" she asked.

"I…I didn't even know," said Harry. He was feeling dizzy, and was grateful that Artie still had his hold on Harry's arm.

"You sure put on a good show," he said with a chuckle. "Ron, why don't you take Harry down to the tent? Get him a soda, he sure looks like he could use it," he added.

"Sure, dad," said Ron, and taking Harry's arm he escorted him all the way back to the tent. When they got there Harry slumped down cross-legged on the ground, staring blankly at the wall in front of him.

"You saw it?" he asked.

Both Ron and Hermione nodded. Hermione was the one to describe it to him. They had been rushing through the woods when all of a sudden a great, golden eagle had burst up from the edge of the woods, sailing around in the sky and then disappearing to just a point. They hadn't seen Harry crash to earth, nor had they seen Wonder Woman's rescue of him.

"So you have two forms, a stag…like your dad," said Hermione, "And an eagle. Hey, that's earth and air," she said. "Isn't that some magical thing? The four elements?" she asked.

Harry nodded, thinking about it. "Yeah, it is," he mused. "Do you think maybe I have a water form and a fire form as well?" he said.

"A water form? Cool! We can do stuff together!" said Ron.

Harry laughed, despite the queasy feeling he had yet to shake. "Yeah, sure Ron," he said. "Someday we'll be the biggest ass-kicking crime-fighting underwater duo ever," he said.

Ron scowled and made a rude gesture at Harry, although the two friends knew it was all in jest. "Whatever. You'll probably be like, a dolphin, anyway," he said.

"Don't make fun of dolphins, Ron," said Hermione. "You don't want them to find out about it. Then they'll stop speaking to you," she said, barely able to suppress a grin while saying it.

"Oh, shut up," he mumbled, tossing a cold soda can at Harry. He took it in both hands, snapping the tab, and took a long cold sip before sinking into thought.

Within the next hour other groups began showing up out of the woods. Cho, Lavender and Cedric were one of the last to arrive. Lavender glared at Ron as she swept past, while Cedric sent him a pitying glance. Harry, for his part, got a good look at Cho for the first time and found himself blushing.

She appeared to be Asian, and despite being no more than a year or two older than him had a lean muscle tone that was evidence of years of training. 'Well,' thought Harry, 'Wonder Woman did say she was an Amazon.' She turned around briefly, catching Harry looking at her, and winked, making Harry turn away quickly with a faint blush on her cheeks.

When they had all arrived Artie began to dig a large pit and, enlisting Ginny and Ron's help, built a fire and began barbecuing packet after packet of hot dogs, burgers, and vegetarian soy patties. At some point he brought out a box of assorted snacks, of which Dean was one of the first to dig in. Finding himself a bag of Oreos he set off to the side, ignoring the rest of the food in favor of the cookies.

As dusk began to settle they extinguished the fire and boarded the plane. Harry found himself almost falling asleep on the trip back, his eyes shifting closed time and again. He had fallen into a fitful sleep when he felt somebody nudging on his arm. He blinked his eyes open again.

"What?" he managed, rubbing his eyes beneath his glasses.

"Look!" Hermione whispered. He looked out the window, feeling a sudden slow sense of shock overwhelm him. There the Academy stood, the same as it always had. But the west wing…Hermione's wing, Harry remembered…was no longer there. Instead, a smoldering pile of ash lay where the west wing had once stood, bricks and soot laid bare on the open ground.

The Academy had been attacked.


	14. Christmas First

**Harry Potter: A Brave Beginning**

**Author's Note: **Another day, another chapter. Taking a few minutes away from my 'proper' writing to scribble out a chapter for you. Still in the process of figuring out exactly how I want this story to unfold, but a few ideas beginning to form a little more clearly in my mind as of now, so we'll see how that goes. Anyway, on to the next chapter.

**Christmas First**

Days went by, and each morning the students waited with bated breath and barely concealed fascination to see whether the announcement would finally come. Everybody wanted to know what exactly had happened to cause the explosion in the west wing. But the teachers were keeping silent, to the point that even the student gradually talked less and less of it until the only whispers of what had happened took place in locked rooms and away from prying ears.

Neville, in particular, become particularly popular for a short while for the role that he had played in the attack. He recounted everything that he had seen and heard for days, for everybody from his classmates to Fred and George, but only to Harry, Ron, and Hermione did he reveal his suspicions about the attack.

"It has to do with whatever they're hiding on the satellite," he said to Ron, clutching a can of coke in both hands.

"Do you really think so?" said Hermione. There were dark shadows under her eyes. The loss of her beloved science wing had hit her hard. It had taken a full week for temporary laboratories to be set up in another part of the building, but weeks of research that had been well underway since the beginning of the semester was now having to be undertaken from scratch.

As young as she was, Hermione had been one of the first volunteers to push through the rubble of the desolated wing and since then had spent countless hours helping set things up again. She'd managed to beg off most of her other classes, which wouldn't have been acceptable at all if it weren't for her technopathic skills.

In fact, the only session that Harry could recall her being unable to beg off was Constantine's magic class. She still showed up twice a week, stumbling in as tired as she could possibly be, and partnered with Harry in the teacher's increasingly bizarre series of lessons.

Sitting on top of Harry's bed, legs crossed under her, Harry wondered that she was even able to keep her eyes open for their little meeting. Neville glanced up, nodded at her, and slipped into deep thought.

"Are you going to be staying at the school over Christmas break?" asked Hermione after a long moment.

"Of course," said Ron, and Harry too nodded automatically. Even if he were welcome back at the Dursleys, and hadn't stolen his uncle's police cruiser, he was certain there was no way he'd actually want to see his relatives for the holidays. Only Neville shook his head.

"I've got to go back to Gotham City for the break," said Neville. "Mr. Wayne wants to run me through some tests. See how I'm doing." He took a long sip of the coke before aiming the empty can at the trashcan across the room, flinging it in a perfect art to land inside.

"Good. It'll be nice to have you around," said Hermione. "I volunteered to stay behind and get the last of the adjustments made on the new science wing. I'm glad I won't have to spend Christmas alone," she said, smiling despite the look of total exhaustion on her face. Harry stammered out something saying he'd be glad to spend Christmas with her, trying not to blush as he did so.

The beginning of Christmas break was barely two weeks away, and speculation about the attacks on the Academy - both the one that had occurred on Halloween night and the more recent attack - was abandoned as the students got ready to take their first examinations of the school year. Harry's first exam was in Zatanna's class, and consisted only of having to shapeshift into the form that he'd discovered on the Amazonian island in front of the other magic users. He did so, after almost an hour of hard work, and Zatanna proudly gave him an A for his effort. The only other student to receive an A in her class was Luna, who was forced to use magic without the use of her usual incantations.

Draco wasn't pleased, and as Harry was leaving the classroom felt a sudden and expected surge of depression that he wasn't able to recognize until Draco disappeared into an adjoining corridor and the feeling left him as suddenly as it had come on. Seamus wasn't altogether pleased about the C he'd received, but couldn't help but commend Harry on his transformation as they went together to their next class.

It took some struggling, but Harry managed to pull through his physical education course with a decent grade, and in his combat course he managed to get a few strikes in against Dean, who he'd been partnered against.

When he arrived at Constantine's magic class, after finding Hermione in the science wing and practically having to drag her away from some sort of complicated device that sounded, from what Hermione mumbled, to be a "thermonuclear diffusive something-or-other", he was pleased to find that they'd be taking the exam in partners.

"But don't get too fuzzing used to it," growled Constantine, striking a match on the underside of his desk and lighting a cigarette. "At the end of the year, everybody gets tested on your own. And there's no curve in this class. Everybody gets graded the same whether they're 100 percent mortal or Merlin's own mumblerfuzzing great-grandson," he said.

With Harry and Hermione working together the pair pulled off a better than average grade, and though Hermione didn't seem entirely pleased about it she at least seemed grateful for Harry's help. "After all," she said, "if I'm going to make one B this semester at least it's in a magic course. It's not as if I bungled Quinod's Theory of Dissonent Proportion, or something," she said, as if such a thing would have been a ghastly oversight.

So the two weeks came to a gradual close, and on the last day of classes all the boys gathered in Neville's room for a small going-away party, as Harry and Ron were the only boys in their year who weren't heading home. "Keep an eye on things, will you?" said Neville quietly, when Seamus and Dean were arguing over something one or the other had done with the video game they were playing. "You know how to get in touch with me if something happens."

"Of course," said Harry with a sharp nod.

And nothing more was said on the subject. The next morning the students began to head out. Neville disappeared into a sleek, shiny limousine, whose driver nodded his wizened face at Harry before driving away into the morning sun. Luna and Zatanna left together, to who knew where, and Seamus was retrieved by his mum - a frazzled looking woman with a strong Irish accent, who flicked them both away with a wave of her own wand.

The Green Lantern appeared momentarily to whisk Dean away - to a planet called Oa, if Harry had overheard what he said correctly. Susan Bones gave Harry and Ron a quick wave as she sailed by them, throwing a bag full of her things into the backseat of a black convertible being driven by a broad-shouldered, slightly older-looking blonde man with Mrs. Queen in the passenger seat.

Before too long, the Academy was empty, and Harry and Ron slipped back to their rooms. "So, we're staying until Christmas eve," said Ron. "Then my dad will pick us up so we can spend Christmas with the family."

"What?" said Harry, pausing in the middle of the stairwell. "We?"

"Of course. You didn't think I was going to leave you alone here for Christmas, did you?" he said. "Hermione's invited too, of course, if she can tear herself away from her science projects for long enough to come have dinner with us."

Harry waited until Ron had moved back up the stairs before he began to follow him again, afraid that the look on his face would betray him. He'd never before had a proper Christmas. What had passed for the holiday in the Dursley house was basically his aunt and uncle pushing off some shoddy trifle as a gift while they lavished presents on his cousin.

They had only a few days to pass before Artie was scheduled to come pick them up for the celebration. In that time Harry and Ron spent most of their time in Neville's room, having been given permission to come and go as they pleased. Then, on Christmas Eve, Harry and Ron both packed their bags, pulled Hermione from the science labs as she half-dragged her own bag behind her, and ran down to the great hall to meet Ron's dad.

"Hope you don't mind, but Mr. Weasley sent me down to pick you up," said the man who stood there, peering down at them over his glasses.

"Mr. Kent!" said Ron, seeming startled. "What are you doing in here?" he blurted out.

"Oh, Artie gave me the codes. Said it wouldn't be a big deal, seeing as you were the only ones here and the codes are reset after the holidays." Mr. Kent chuckled. "Whatever that means."

"Right…" said Ron, not seeming convinced. Harry remembered that he had said Clark Kent was a reporter, and wondered briefly if he might not be trying to fish something up on the school.

"I guess you could call it a sort of a favor," said Clark. "Your dad's been down at the farm helping my Pa rebuild some of the old farm equipment. I tell you, your father is something of a wizard with engines and the like," he said with a chuckle. He reached out and took Hermione's bag from her, lifting it as if it were light as a feather, and followed suit by grabbing Harry's and Ron's.

Hermione goggled as the three of them followed Mr. Kent out of the building. "That bag has over a hundred pounds of equipment in it!" hissed Hermione under her breath to Harry.

As if on cue, Mr. Kent slumped under the weight of Hermione's bag. "Oof! What have you got in here, bowling balls?" he said, dropping the bag gently into the bed of the truck. He shook his arm. "That teaches me for trying to show off," he said. "Hop on in kids."

Mr. Kent chatted with them as they drove down to the Weasley house, telling them all about his life on the farm and what it was like to grow up in Smallville.

"You know, your mom and dad spent a few Christmases here in town, before they died," said Mr. Kent. "I knew both of them, well. They were good people. It was such a tragedy…" he trailed off, shaking his head. "I was the one who had to write the report for The Daily Planet. You know…you look very much like James," he said. "Except for your eyes. Your eyes are very much like your mothers."

Harry glanced over at Mr. Kent, meeting his smiling blue eyes behind the glasses. Again, he felt a spark of recognition, but wasn't exactly sure where it came from. "You know, I keep wondering why you haven't had access to any of your fortune. Your parents left you quite a bit of money. And nobody even knows who's running the company they left behind. It's actually become quite a mystery, you know."

"A mystery?" said Harry. He'd never really thought about his parents' money, or their company, since he'd come to school. He'd kind of assumed that it was all in a bank account somewhere, waiting for him to turn eighteen.

"I'd be happy to check it out, do some investigating. I bet I could even get Lois Lane in on a story like this," he said with a smile. "That is, if you're all right with that."

"Er…yeah. Sure," said Harry. Ron whipped around to look at him as if he were mad. He knew that his friend was of the opinion that if he were the one who was an orphaned billionaire he'd want access to his money yesterday.

"Great. I'll do some poking then," said Mr. Kent. "Ah, here we are." He pulled up to the curb and the trio jumped out. He grabbed Hermione's bag again, wincing. "Watch out how much weight you carry around," he said as he took it to the door. "Don't want to hurt yourself," he said.

Harry and Ron grabbed their own bags, and waved Mr. Kent off as he went back to the truck and with a friendly wave disappeared down the dusty dirt road.

"I think he knows more about your parents than he's letting on," said Hermione.

"Oh come off it," said Ron. "He's a reporter. He's just being nosy."

Before any of them could say anything more the door opened widely and Ginny stood there, grinning up at the impishly. "They're heeere!" she squeaked excitedly, disappearing in a flash and reappearing at the top of the stairs.

"So where are Fred and George? And Percy?" asked Harry, who'd been wondering why Ron's three brothers hadn't been at the castle along with them.

"They'll be here later. Percy volunteered for a training sessions somewhere and the twins got invited to play a game of tag football with a bunch of guys in their year." They moved into the kitchen, where Mrs. Weasley was already at work in front of the stove. She whipped around, grinning broadly. "There you are!" she said happily. "Ron and Harry and…oh dear, you're so tired!" she said, stopping when she came to Hermione and putting a hand on either hip. "How do they get off at that school, overworking you poor children to death?"

"I'm fine, Mrs. Weasley," said Hermione uncomfortably. Harry realized that this was her first meeting with the rest of Ron's family, and that she hadn't yet been exposed to Mrs. Weasley's empathic abilities. The woman tutted, shaking her head. "I was going to have you share a room with Ginny, but that little sprite will keep you up half the night. Barely sleeps a wink, with all the things fluttering around in her head," she said with a laugh. "I'll move her in with me for the night, and send Artie down to nap in the garage."

"Like dad will mind that at all," said Ron with a grin. Harry grinned back, knowing full well that Artie would probably like nothing better than to spend an entire night tinkering away in the garage.

"You don't have -" Hermione began, but Mrs. Weasley cut her off with a shake of the head.

"My mind is made up, dear," she said. "No, why don't you boys go up to your room and clean up while I finish dinner? It should be ready in an hour."

Although Hermione seemed uncomfortable at first, Harry noticed that it didn't take her long to warm up to the family. Once Percy arrived she got into a serious discussion with him about the future of the science building, and after Fred and George arrived (as heavily disheveled as it was possible for two boys to be) the ratio of people that she'd already met was raised even higher.

Despite the constant hum Harry heard outside in the hall (which he later realized to be Ginny's speedy footfall back and forth, and back and forth) he managed to fall into a deep sleep early on, and was awakened the next morning to feeling something heavy land on his bed and disappear, followed shortly by a loud yelp from Ron.

"PRESENTS!" shrieked Ginny, disappearing just as quickly as she'd come from the room.

"Brat," spat Ron, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Then, catching Harry's eye, he grinned from ear to ear. "Come on!" he said, and jumping out of bed he ran out of the room and down the stairs.

Harry climbed out of bed, finding his glasses and his robe, and left the room just as Hermione was coming out of her own. "Merry Christmas, Hermione," said Harry.

"Merry Christmas," she returned.

"Guess we should go watch them open their gifts," he said.

Stifling a yawn, Hermione nodded, and together they walked down the stairs just in time to watch the last pieces of wrapping paper fly through the air as Ginny made hasty work of her gifts.

"There you are dear," said Mrs. Weasley, pushing a small pile of gifts wrapped in shiny, silvery paper into Harry's hands. He glanced at them in shock.

"For me?" he said.

Mrs. Weasley immediately frowned, and Harry winced. He knew she must have felt what he felt on receiving the gifts - must have realized that he'd never gotten any before, at least none that really mattered.

"Of course, dear, Merry Christmas," she said, bending down and kissing him on the forehead. "And for you, dear," she said, handing a large gift bag over to Hermione. "Artie had all of your packages sent down from the castle since you were spending Christmas with us."

"Th-thank you, Mrs. Weasley," said Hermione, blushing. Making their way around the rest of the Weasley clan, Harry and Hermione joined Ron on the couch as he began to unwrap his own gifts.

"An underwater communicator! Cool dad, thanks!" said Ron, pulling on the watch-sized gadget his father had made for him.

"Make sure Flipper gets your number!" called out George from the floor. "Wouldn't want to make the king of dolphins mad."

"Oh great, funny," said Ron with a roll of his eyes. He pulled over the package his mother had given him, tearing it open. "Oh…great mum," he said, wincing as a package of fresh underwear was revealed to be inside the package.

"Well, it's what you needed most, isn't it?" she said. Harry suppressed a laugh and Hermione blushed furiously as Ron quickly concealed the gift from the rest of the room.

"I wouldn't laugh if I were you, she does it to everybody," said Ron. As if on cue a chorus of groans was heard around the room as Ron's other siblings pulled out from their packages an array of socks, underwear, and other basic necessities. Even the usually energetic Ginny was put out for a moment as she yanked out a handful of brightly colored training bras, causing every male in the room to turn a hot pink and suddenly pretend he had something more important to look at on the exact opposite side of the room.

"That's the bad thing about having an empath for a mother," said Ron. "She always knows what you need, more than anything."

Harry paused for a moment before finally pulling open the gift that Mrs. Weasley had gotten for him. However, rather than find anything embarrassing inside, he found a small leather-bound scrapbook. He paused for a moment, then pulled it open, revealing on the very first page a newspaper clipping announcing the engagement of his father and mother.

"I hope you don't mind dear," said Mrs. Weasley. "I had that lovely Mr. Kent help me. He was able to dig up a lot of pictures, and articles and things, from the Daily Planet vaults." Harry nodded vaguely as he began to turn the pages, seeing page after page of his parents. Although most of the articles were of them in their civilian lives, as Lily and James Potter, there were also several portraits of them as White Seraph and Stag.

"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley," said Harry. "It's amazing."

After several minutes he put away the photo album, realizing that he had several items he had yet to open. Ron had given him a bag of candy, including the gummies that his friend knew to be a particular favorite, and Hermione had given him a book. He was disappointed for just a moment, until he saw that it was a thickly bound collection of comics. He was really pleased with Artie's gift, seeing that it was a communicator to match Ron's, and glancing over he saw that Hermione had received one as well.

Then he moved on to the last two. One of them was a letter in a plain brown envelope, addressed to Mr. Harry J. Potter. He tore it open and two pieces of paper fluttered down into his lap.

The first was a check, with a single number on it that was followed by a great many zeroes. "That came during the night, dear. I'm not sure who it was from," said Mrs. Weasley.

Harry picked up the letter quickly, reading it to himself.

_Mr. Potter,_

_It is my displeasure to realize that those who I had appointed to you guardianship have been unable to provide for the rightful disbursement of your trust. Please find enclosed with this letter a check in the amount of $600,000, equal to the amount of money due to have been paid to you this calendar and including back payment for the past several years. _

_In the next several months I find it prudent to meet with you concerning these monetary matters. I have contacted your former guardians and regrettably they have decided that it is no longer in their best interests to keep you on as a ward. Before the end of the school year at the Academy a new guardianship must be appointed. _

_Note that the following charges, originally filed by a Mr. Vernon Dursley, have now been dropped with the Middleton County Police Department: Grand Theft Auto, Larceny, Kidnapping, Assault, Assault With a Deadly Weapon, Attempted Manslaughter, Fraud, and Conspiracy to Commit Murder._

_I hope that this Christmas finds you well. _

_Lucius Fox,_

_CEO Wayne Enterprises_

"Well, that answers one question," said Hermione, after Harry allowed her to read the letter. "Obviously your relatives have been taking the money from you trust all these years and keeping it for themselves."

"I'm just glad I won't be going to live with them," said Harry. "But now who am I going to live with? I don't have any other relatives, at least not that I know of," he said.

"I'm sure Mr. Fox will figure it out," said Ron. "Wayne Enterprises…wow! So he works with…." He trailed off.

"Bat…Mr. Wayne, he knew my parents," said Harry. "You don't think that means that Wayne Enterprises is running my parents company, do you?"

"It makes sense," said Hermione. "Doesn't it? Their company had to have been a front, anyway, for their…you know…'activities'. Mr. Wayne probably took over where they left off."

Harry nodded. He set the letter and the check aside…he couldn't even imagine what he could possibly do with that much money. And he looked at the last remaining package.

It was wrapped in shining gold paper, without a mark on it to indicate who it was from. He tore open the paper and a long silvery piece of material slipped out of the wrapping, pooling around his feet at the floor. He frowned, bending down to pick it up. Ron froze, a gummi worm stolen from his own gift to Harry halfway to his lips. "No way!" he said, picking up one edge of the cloak.

"What is it?" said Harry.

Ron jumped up. "I think…no, it has to be…yes! Harry, put it on!" he said. Harry hesitated and then, because Ron was so insistent, pulled up the piece of cloth, realizing it to be some sort of cape. He threw it over his shoulders and both Ron and Hermione gasped.

"Look, look Harry!" said Hermione. Harry glanced down at his hand, yelping when he realized it was no longer there. He looked at both hands, then down at his feet. Nothing was there. Then he reached out and punched Ron lightly, watching as his friend shouted and rubbed his shoulder.

Harry whipped off the cape. "What is it?" he asked.

"Invisibility cloak! And a real one, too, not the fake sort of thing some of the supers have managed to crank out," said Ron.

"Harry, there's a note," said Hermione, picking up a small piece of paper from the floor.

Harry took it from her, glancing down at the tightly scrawled writing.

_Harry,_

_This was left in my care before your father died. I am giving it to you now as it is rightfully yours. Use it wisely, and keep out of trouble. _

_Superman_

"Superman?" said both Ron and Hermione in unison as Harry read it aloud. They all exchanged glances. For the first time since Harry had begun opening his gifts, the rest of the Weasleys turned to see what was going on. But Harry, with Ron and Hermione's help, managed to avoid showing any of them the invisibility cape.

After all, there are some things that are best kept to yourself.


	15. Christmas Second

**Harry Potter: A Brave Beginning**

**Christmas Second**

Christmas day passed quickly, and before they knew it Harry, Ron, and Hermione were being driven by Artie back up to the Academy. Hermione was grateful, as with Artie's help she'd managed to reassemble the computer system she'd brought with her to the Weasley house and was eager to get it up and running again in the heart of the science labs.

Harry, who usually couldn't spend enough time with Ron's exciting and eccentric family, was for once grateful to have a moment away from them and to get back to the privacy of his and Ron's dorm. He had yet to really get a good chance to look at the invisibility cape, and the moment their door slammed behind them he was pulling it out of his backpack and spreading it out across his bed for a better look.

What he'd taken at first to be silver fabric soon revealed itself to shift imperceptibly in the light, at times a dewy gray and transitioning before you could tell that it was even changing to a deep and impenetrable black, then back again to the shimmering silver it had been when he first saw it.

As the first thing of his father's he'd ever owned, he felt a sense of pride in his newfound possession. The fact that Ron was so deeply impressed only furthered his belief that he now owned a very important object.

"Try it on again," said Ron, and Harry was only too happy to oblige. He picked it up, swinging it over his shoulders. Once again he disappeared, taking a few teetering steps only to realize how strange it was not to be able to see oneself. He moved to Ron's left, and then to his right, before pulling it off. Ron started when Harry came into view.

"Wicked!" he said. "You need to let me try that out sometime!"

"I don't think there's much use for an invisibility cloak under the sea," joked Harry, but in reality he cringed at the idea of anybody but him using the cloak. At least, not right now. It was too new, and all of a sudden the first thing that he'd ever owned that seemed to be really and truly his.

"Hey, do you think you can like…turn it on and off?" said Ron suddenly.

"What?"

"The cape. Do you think you can like…will the invisibility part of it on and off?" he asked. "It really wouldn't be much use in actual battle unless you could," he said.

Harry hadn't thought of that, but Ron was right. He swept it back on over his shoulders, but this time focused on his friend, on making his presence known in the world. Sure enough, as he secured it, Ron continued to stare at him, grinning from ear to ear.

"Wicked!" he repeated.

Still wearing the cloak, Harry this time focused on making himself invisible. He felt almost like sand slipping through the cracks as he disappeared, moving around a little before reappearing.

"This is like…the coolest thing ever," said Harry.

"Totally," said Ron. "And it kind of explains a few things, too."

Harry turned around. "What do you mean?" he asked Ron.

"Well, Stag…your dad…was never seen in human form. Haven't you ever heard about the way he fought?" asked Ron.

Harry shook his head. What little he'd ever known about White Seraph and Stag he'd only heard in passing, and he'd never paid that close attention to them because it was never acceptable to do so while living with the Dursleys. Ron picked up the scrapbook this his mother had made and spread it out on the table in front of them, flipping to one of the newspaper reports about his parents.

Stag and White Seraph Foil Robbery; Identity of Vigilante Crusaders Still Unknown

Minutes before closing, the staff and a handful of late customers at the First National Bank of Addison were set upon by a trio of bank robbers. Clothed in black and faces covered with skeletal masks, the robbers took the customers hostage and held the bank employees at gunpoint as they waited for the bank vault to open at its scheduled time.

What was almost a perfect robbery begun to come undone when the man holding the hostages suddenly doubled over, attacked by a seemingly invisible force. Like a ghost, the force battered the attacker and removed his gun just in time for a series of sleeping gas bombs were released from a distance.

Witnesses on the scene say that they were immediately aware they were witnessing the events of White Seraph and Stag. "You could smell the scent in the gas. Her scent," said one of the hostages, whose name shall remain anonymous. "Like some kind of slower, but I'm not sure what. I held my breath long enough that I didn't fall under immediately, and I saw them. The woman in white, walking into the bank, and then the appearance of the great golden stag."

Although at first assumed to be some sort of mass projection created by the vigilante known as White Seraph, it is now thought by leading vigilantism experts that the phantom known by Stag is indeed a hero in his own right, and more than likely one of the class known as "magic-users". A handful of witnesses claim to have seen White Seraph in the company of a dark-haired man with a silver cape. Although shapeshifters are rare they are certainly not unheard of.

Experts still remain divided on the actions of known vigilantes such as White Seraph and Stag. Although many efforts have been put underway to attempt to find their identities there have been no real clues about who these supposed "heroes" really are.

The only thing for certain is that those who have witnessed the attacks, such as the man quoted above, are appreciative for the efforts of their kind. "I don't know what we'd do without them," he says. "But I know this world would be a lot worse off if they weren't around."

"You see?" said Ron, as Harry finished. "Your dad never appeared as himself, at least not to the non-supers. I guess it made him more…I don't know…spooky."

"And it helped him keep a secret identity," said Harry.

He wondered suddenly if that's what his father would suggest to him, if he were alive then, and felt a sudden pang of sadness that he'd been trying to ignore for a long time. Within an instant he realized that he longed to see them, to speak to them and ask their advice about a great many things.

It was getting late. He put the cape away, and after heading off to Neville's room for a quick round on his PS3 he and Ron got into their pajamas and went to bed.

But Harry couldn't sleep. He found himself staring up at the ceiling and going over everything that had happened to him over the course of the day. He thought about the letter, and the enormous check, and the things that he had learned about his parents. And the more he thought, the more awake he became, until finally he swung his legs over the side of the bed and grabbing the cape headed for the door.

Ron's snoring at the other end of the room assured him that his friend was asleep. He quietly slipped out, securing the cape around his neck and willing himself to disappear as he made his way into the empty hall. He didn't know where he was going, but presently found himself making his way toward the ruined science wing that Hermione had for so long mourned.

The desire to know what had happened still burned strongly inside of him. He knew that it had to be connected to the release of Clayface on Halloween; after all, the explosion had taken place in the very area where he, Ron and Hermione had been forced to confront the villain. He'd thought about the events with passing interest, but with the invisibility cape now in his possession he wondered if he might be able to find some clue as to what was really going on in the school.

He reached the cordoned off area, slipping past the motion-detection sensors with little difficulty. He supposed that the cape must afford him protection against all kinds of detection, otherwise the sirens would have been wailing and Headmaster Jones, or Constantine, or whoever would have been on watch would be on him within moments.

Harry had never had much reason to be in the science wing before the explosion, and had barely recognized it even then. Now it was wholly foreign to him, nothing but a shell of what had been housed there before. The walls were charred and blackened, most of the rooms opening up to the stars outside.

Moving through the charred remains, stepping over beams and broken glass, he observed everything without really knowing what it was that he was looking for. It was when he had almost reached the end of the wing that he finally found a piece of the building that had been preserved. A large door, seemingly made of glass, appeared in front of him.

Hesitantly Harry walked toward it and, after a long moment of hesitation, pushed his way inside.

Like the door itself, the room appeared to be mirrored. Harry stepped inside, pulling the door after him. It secured itself with a firm click, and then all of a sudden he found himself standing in an ornate sitting room, a roaring fire at one end and an enormous bank of chairs before it. A man with a large amount of black hair in shocking disarray sat in one of these chairs.

"Lily, dear? Are you almost finished with that report?"

"Just a minute, James." A woman appeared from the far end of the room. Long red hair fell almost to her waist, and without glancing at Harry she sat down beside James.

"Mom?" said Harry, feeling himself going into a state of shock. "Dad?" He pulled off the cape.

James spun around, glancing up at Harry. "What are you doing out of bed? It's late," he said.

"S-sorry," Harry stammered. "I couldn't sleep."

"Now James, stop giving him a hard time," said Lily. "It's Christmas vacation. He can stay up a little past his bedtime."

Harry came around to the side of the fire, sitting down right on the carpet in front of their chairs. "Oh, all right," said James. "Hey, sport, how'd you like to hear about the job we did yesterday evening? It was a bit of a mess, but came out all right in the end…"

"Now, James. Don't go giving him wild ideas," said Lily, but she was grinning.

Harry stayed there for almost an hour, until finally his eyes were closing and he was practically falling asleep just sitting there. "I've got to go," he managed reluctantly. "But I'll be back as soon as possible," he said quickly.

Lily and James glanced at one another, and chuckled, as Harry rushed out of the ornate living room and back into the charred remains of the science wing. He rushed back up to his bedroom and slipped into bed, sleeping fitfully until Ron woke him up the next morning.

Ron seemed to notice that Harry was out of sorts, although he didn't say anything until after dinner. Harry immediately confessed what he'd done, telling him all about the room in the science wing. Shocked, Ron was unable to speak for several minutes. Finally he managed to get out, "Well, next time you go on some crazy midnight adventure at least remember to take me with you," he said.

That night, once it was dark, Harry once again donned the cape. Deciding to try something, he asked Ron to stand nearby and once he was invisible gripped his friend by the wrist and focused on making him disappear as well. Surely enough Ron too vanished from sight and, retaining his hold on him, the two boys made their way through the halls and back to the science wing.

Harry could feel Ron hesitate as they approached the motion sensors. "I don't think…" he began.

"Come on. It's no big deal, the cape lets us through," said Harry. He yanked on Ron's arm and together they moved past the sensors without incident. Much more quickly than the night before Harry found the room and pushed open the mirrored door. He pulled Ron in behind him and the door once again snapped shut.

The living room appeared before him, just as the night before. But when he turned to see Ron, his friend had disappeared.

"What…" he started, but stopped when he saw his mother stand up and smile at him from behind her chair.

"Up late again, Harry?" she said with a laugh. "You are so much like your father. What am I going to do with you?"

He stayed for an hour before managing to pull himself away, remembering Ron. When he pushed through the door his friend was already standing outside, a look of wild excitement on his face.

"Where'd you go?" he said. "You should have seen it! I had all these cool powers and I was being given my own seat with the Justice League! You don't think this room is an oracle or something? Like, it can show the future?"

"That wouldn't make sense," said Harry. "Because it's showing me my parents, and they aren't in the future are they?" he said.

Ron's face fell. "Yeah…" he said, seeming a little disappointed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Why did it take us to two different places though?"

"I guess that's just the way it works," said Harry.

"Right," said Ron. He appeared to be struggling for a moment, before finally blurting out, "Maybe it's not a good idea to go in there again," he said.

"What do you mean?" said Harry, flabbergasted. How could it not be a good idea to see, to speak with his parents?

"I think it really messes with you, whatever it is."

"You aren't my babysitter, Ron," said Harry, and irritated by his friend's lack of support he yanked on the cape and began to walk. Ron ran to catch up with him and Harry took his wrist, making both of them disappear just in time to miss the motion sensors.

They didn't talk about it once they got back to the room, and didn't talk about it the next morning. Harry went through the motions of losing to Ron at Madden '10, watching episodes of some weird British sci-fi show, and having dinner with him and Hermione under the supervision of Headmaster Jones once she managed to pull herself away from her projects.

It wasn't until they were getting ready for bed that Ron ventured the subject. "You aren't going to go again, are you?" he asked.

"What?" said Harry, bristling. "No, of course not," he lied awkwardly. Ron glanced at him, then sighed and shrugged.

"Whatever. Good night," he said. Harry waited for a full half-hour before he heard Ron begin to snore, then pulled the cape on and slipped out of bed, making his way once more to the mirrored room.

The room was the same, just as if he'd left for another part of the house he'd have lived in if his parents hadn't died rather than another reality altogether. "Hey mom. Hey dad," he said, slipping off the cloak and coming around to sit with his parents by the fire.

They talked for an hour, and were going on two when all of a sudden Harry caught sight of a figure sitting at the far side of the room. He jumped up, and the mansion slipped away until he was once again standing inside the mirrored chamber. The man he'd spotted smiled at him, making his way over.

"I'm surprised you saw me. This room puts on a pretty strong illusion."

Harry put his head down, turning red. Superman stared down at him with a friendly smile on his face. Harry's heart was pounding in his chest. He was in big trouble - he just knew it. He'd be expelled from the Academy, his money taken away…something horrible was going to happen. He feared the worst.

Instead, Superman bent down and picked up Harry's cape off of the floor. "I did ask you not to get in trouble with this, although I should have guessed the temptation would be pretty hard to resist. It's hard enough being a twelve-year-old boy, much less a twelve-year-old boy with superpowers. And believe me, I would know."

"I'm sorry," managed Harry finally, cringing. But Superman only laughed, handing him the cape.

"You're all right. Just promise me you'll be staying away from here from now on. We'll be moving the room before school starts back anyway, and if I were you I'd suggest not trying to look for it. The Chamber of Erised can play tricks on even the strongest of minds."

"The…Chamber of Erised? Sir?" asked Harry.

"This place shows you the thing you want most in the world," said Superman. "Whatever it is. It was developed as a way of rewarding prisoners…using the exact opposite of torture, if you understand me, to get information out of them. Except it didn't work."

Harry frowned. "And why didn't it work?" he asked.

"Because they were afraid that once they said anything they'd never be allowed inside again. So they clammed up, hoping for just one more day inside the chamber. And most of them became obsessed. And many of them lost it completely."\

"Oh," said Harry. He thought of the overwhelming longing he'd been feeling before entering the chamber, to see his parents, to get a chance to speak to them. He felt drawn, again, to the chamber. Glancing up, he met Superman's bright blue eyes. A flash of recognition.

"Mr. Kent?" he stammered.

"Excuse me, who?" said Superman easily. He guided Harry out of the room and into the blackened science building. "Sorry, Harry, but I have to be going. I am glad to see you got your Christmas present. Promise me you'll use it a bit more responsibly from now on," he said.

Harry nodded vaguely, and Superman was about to take off when Harry said, "Sir? What do you see? When you're in the chamber?"

Superman paused. His smile faltered for a moment before returning. "Why, truth, justice, and the American way, of course," he said before taking off into the night sky.

Harry continued back to his room. Ron was still snoring when he returned, never having noticed that he was gone. It was only as he was drifting off to sleep that Harry realized that Superman hadn't been telling him the truth - that there was something else he saw, something else he desired more than anything else in the world.

But then again, it had been a very personal question Harry thought, and easing it out of his mind he drifted off into a good night's sleep.


	16. Blueprints

**Harry Potter: A Brave Beginning**

**Author's Note: **Posting a lot of this lately because I finally have an idea solidified in the ol' noggin for the sequel, and I'm getting kind of eager to get to it as soon as possible. Anyway, I'm not exactly sure how much longer I expect this story to be. I guess it all just depends on how many ideas I come up with and how much longer this bit of momentum I've got going continues on. Any way, here you are. Another chapter.

**Blueprints**

It was hard to get back into the swing of things after school began again after the Christmas break; much harder than Harry could have expected. And it seemed, on the first day of classes, that he wasn't the only one having that problem. Neville was practically dragging himself along as he made his way to classes. From what Harry could gather from the brief explanation Neville was able to give him, Mr. Wayne had really put him through the ringer over the break.

Over lunch that day, Dean sat pensively quiet- something unusual for the boy, who despite his alien background had always been rather gregarious in nature. "Some philosophical thing," whispered Susan when Harry expressed interest in his friend's condition. "I think it left him a little out of it."

And as for Susan, Harry already knew the reason she looked like she could fall asleep where she stood. He'd read the story in the papers early New Years Day. On an "outing" with Black Canary and Green Arrow, Susan had helped to foil a major bank heist.

Hermione, of course, was as exhausted as she ever seemed to be. But partly because of Harry and Ron's insistence, and partly because the senior students would be returning to the science labs to become a part of the work effort, she'd finally relented and begun spending a little less time toiling away in the labs. They'd even convinced her to spend an hour playing one of Neville's video games - and to Ron's horror, had thrashed the both of them soundly with barely a blink of her eye.

Harry was grateful that his first class of the day had been with Zatanna. She'd been rather lenient on him, although he'd been forced to make both of his transformations before the class period was over. But after lunch was over he would be heading to Constantine's room for his second magic class of the day. He could usually handle Constantine, but with the general malaise that hung over the school he dreaded what might happen.

The bell rang to end lunch. Harry packed up his things, and together with Ron and Hermione made his way to the smoke-infused classroom. "So what do you think he's got planned for today?" asked Harry. Ron shrugged and Hermione winced.

"Nothing too awful, I hope. I was up until three in the morning putting together the last part of the transistor pathways. Then when I was almost done I realized that one of the transportation decks wasn't recovered from the damaged wing."

"Up until three?" said Ron in astonishment. "You said you were going to bed at like…eleven!"

"I was!" said Hermione. "But then I remembered that they were going to need the main console up and running for classes this morning so I decided to go and finish it up. Then once I had that done, I figured out a more efficient way to configure the…"

"We get it," interrupted Harry, grinning.

Hermione sighed. "I hope nothing else gets blown up at this school. I need time to study for exams, after all."

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance behind her back as they opened the door to Constantine's room and entered.

"Good to see you, class!" Harry stopped dead. Standing at the front of the room, and most definitely not chain smoking, was a young woman with sleek black hair and dark eyes. "My name is Gemma. I'm taking over my uncle's class for today."

"Uncle?" whispered Hermione as they took their seats in the room.

"We're going to be learning some divination today," said Gemma. "Er…fortune telling, you know. Everybody should have a small wooden box on their table. Open it, please."

Harry glanced over at Hermione. She reached out, touching the box for a moment, and pushed it over to Harry to open. He signed and flipped over the top. Inside were several small objects wrapped in black velvet. Harry pulled them out, one by one, as Gemma continued to speak.

"Inside you should find a crystal ball, a pack of Tarot cards, a pendulum and a small glass mirror. We're going to use all of them, today. Divination can be very important, for magic users and non-magic users. But it can be tricky to use; a lot of times it may seem you have the right answer, but you'll realize it's never that simple. And a little mistake can mess everything up if you aren't careful."

"Well, I sure am glad they're teaching this to a bunch of twelve-year-olds," muttered Hermione under her breath.

"You." Gemma turned, looking straight at Hermione. Hermione ducked her head down, blushing furiously.

"Er…yes ma'am?"

"I think I'd like to use you for my first demonstration. Come up here, please."

Hermione glanced first at Harry, and then over to Ron wildly, as if she thought that they could help her. Then reluctantly she moved up to the front of the room and took the chair that Gemma offered. Gemma sat opposite her, so that they were staring at one another from opposite sides of the desk.

"I think we'll use the crystal ball," she said, unwrapping her own and placing it on the velvet at the center of the table. "Place your fingers on the ball, lightly, and clear your thoughts."

Hermione frowned, but did as she was told. "No. Look into the glass," demanded Gemma as Hermione's eyes began to drift closed.

Shaking her head, Hermione did as she was told. Harry watched as Gemma put her own fingers on the glass, staring intently at the center of the glass.

"Although the primary use of divination is to see the future, it can also be used to see the present and the past. The future is far too difficult a subject for you children. It's always in flux…every little choice we make affects what could possibly happen. So today, we're focusing on the past."

As he watched Gemma and Hermione, Harry unwrapped his own crystal ball, turning it lightly in his hand as he watched the light glitter from within. "Is there any event from your past that you'd like to see?" she asked.

"Uhm…well…" Hermione paused for a moment. "I'd like to see my parents. After…I came to the school…" she said haltingly.

Gemma glanced up at her, one eyebrow raised. "All right," she said after a moment. They both went silent, staring deeply into the crystal ball. Several minutes passed. Everybody in the room was watching them intently, and finally Hermione began to turn pink. Harry realized that she was holding her breath when Gemma broke her concentration and glanced up, and Hermione exhaled deeply. She stood up quickly, darting around the desk to take her seat.

"What was that about?" whispered Harry.

"Oh! I…I had to ask," said Hermione. "About my parents…I just wanted to know if they knew where I was. They still think I'm at UCLA."

"Oh." Harry blinked. He'd almost forgotten that he hadn't been the only one to run away from home. "Well…that's good. I guess."

"I just have to remember to hack back into the UCLA network and put in my grades for last semester," she said with a wince. "I think I'll give myself a B in something. It'll make me feel less horrible about lying to them about this."

Harry laughed. Gemma was now moving around the room, showing the other students how to use the crystal ball. "All right," said Harry, picking up the small glass orb. "I guess it's my turn now."

He began to reach out and touch the glass when Hermione stopped him. "Harry…you aren't going to…" she trailed off, glancing up into his eyes.

Harry stopped. An event from his past, hadn't that been what Gemma told them to seek in the crystal ball? And what other event was there in his past that he wanted to…or at least, needed to see…more than anything? "I…I wasn't even thinking…"

"Good," said Hermione, sitting back.

"But now I am," said Harry. Hermione groaned, as if angry with herself for suggesting something like that to him.

"You can't, Harry! What if you become obsessed with it? What if you can't let it go?"

Harry stopped and thought suddenly of the events that had befallen him over Christmas, when he'd found himself in the Chamber of Erised. He took a deep breath. "All right, then. Not right now," he said. "But later…"

He reached out and touched the orb. "I know!" he said suddenly. "What if we look back and see what happened the evening the science wing was destroyed!" he said in a low hiss. Hermione's eyes widened.

"Do you really think…?" she began.

"Aren't you wondering?" said Harry. "Anyway, if it's this easy I'm sure one of the teacher's has already looked. Let's give it a shot."

After a moment Hermione reached out and touched the ball. They both began to concentrate, Harry pulling from his basic magical ability as he began to focus. Gemma passed by them, saying nothing before moving on to Draco to berate him for attempting to use his emotional control on his partner.

Minutes passed with nothing happening, and he was about to give up when all of a sudden something flickered at the center of the orb. He leaned forward, catching the edge of Batman's cape reflected in the glass as he moved toward the abandoned science wing. He watched in rapt amazement as images floated in and out of the glass. It took him a moment to recognize the second superhero that appeared. He finally realized that it was Dick Grayson in his Nightwing costume. Probably there to help Batman, he thought.

And then there was a final image. Harry knew that Hermione must have seen it too, because he could hear her gasp from her side of the table. Constantine appeared, cigarette in hand, at the entrance to the science wing, glancing first one way and then the other before disappearing. There was a pause and all of a sudden the image in the glass erupted in fire and smoke, dimming over several seconds until once again the glass was clear.

"Good job," said Gemma, coming over. She glanced down at the ball. "What did you see?"

"Er…" Hermione stammered.

"I was looking back at the time my relatives took me to Disneyworld," he said. "I wanted to show Hermione what the castle looked like." This, of course, was an obvious lie. The closest his aunt and uncle had ever gotten to taking him to Disneyworld was allowing him to stay in the room while Dudley watched The Lion King.

"Right," said Hermione quickly. "That was…cool…"

"Good job," said Gemma, glancing between both of them before moving away.

Once class was over, Harry and Hermione convened in his room, dragging Ron and Neville along with them. "We have to tell you what we saw in that divination lesson!" said Hermione.

"What? Something about a castle?" said Ron. He was still irritated at his own failed attempt to see anything in the glass ball. The closest he'd gotten was a bunch of gray stuff that might have been smoke, or dust, or his own breath fogging up the glass.

"No! We looked back to see what happened the night the science wing was destroyed!" said Hermione.

Neville glanced up quickly. "What was it?" he asked. "I tried to get it out of Mr. Wayne but he wouldn't tell me anything about it."

"Well, as far as we could see there were three supers running around the building that night," said Harry. "Batman, of course. Then there was Nightwing…"

"Mr. Grayson was here?" said Neville, frowning. "He was supposed to be out of town that weekend."

"Well, he must have been called back in," said Ron. "Probably to help Batman. It would make sense, wouldn't it? Especially if it was something as major as this?"

Neville scratched his head. "Yeah. You're right," he said. "There's no reason he'd want me to help him," he said, a little forlornly.

"Okay, wait," said Hermione. "Back on track." She put out her hands, as if to steady herself. "Like we were saying, we saw Batman and Nightwing. Nothing really surprising, right? But then we saw Constantine walk right into the science wing just a few minutes before it exploded!"

"Constantine?" gasped both Ron and Neville in surprise.

"Exactly!" said Hermione, smiling. "He must have had something to do with whatever happened in the science wing that night. It makes sense, doesn't it? Why else would somebody who so obviously hates teaching be here at the school? He's after something. Something major!"

All three boys nodded. It did make sense. "But everybody seems to trust him," said Harry finally.

"I don't know about trust," said Hermione. "But he's good at what he does. Everybody knows there can be a really thin line between ally and enemy in this world," she said.

"So?" said Harry. "What do we do now?"

"We keep an eye on him," said Hermione. "We see what he does next. And, we need to figure out what it is that he's after."

Ron's eyes widened in excitement. "If we can figure that out," he said quickly, "then maybe we can get to it first! We'd be real heroes then."

"Ron!" reprimanded Hermione. "This isn't about us looking good. Obviously whatever they've got hidden is something incredibly dangerous. We could be saving a lot of lives by keeping it out of his hands!'

Harry nodded. Everything she was saying made sense to him. But there still seemed to be something that he was missing. He thought about it for a moment. "Well…if we're going to do this," he said, "I guess we'd better get started. Hermione, do you think you can hack into the school's computer system? See if you find anything weird? That'll be somewhere to start, at least."

"Yeah. Sure," she said, although she looked a little concerned. Probably that this new extracurricular activity would cut into her study time.

"And we can start doing some surveillance in the evenings, now that I've got the invisibility cape."

"The what?" said Neville, whipping around. Harry grinned suddenly, having forgotten that he had yet to show his friend his newfound inheritance. He went over to his wardrobe and pulled open the bottom drawer. He unfolded the cape, whipping it over his shoulders, and willed himself invisible.

"Amazing!" said Neville. Harry willed himself visible again.

"And that's not all!" he said. He reached out and took Neville by the wrist, willing the both of them invisible. He heard his friend gasp and felt him shift as he glanced down to see that his hands, his feet, and all the rest of him had disappeared.

Harry and Neville reappeared and Harry whipped off the cape. "It was my dad's," he explained.

"That's so awesome!" said Neville.

"With this, the three of us can keep watch in the lower corridors at night," said Harry. "I already checked…none of the motion sensors or security controls can tell if you're there while you're wearing it."

"You already checked?" said Hermione.

"Don't ask," mumbled Ron, glancing over at Harry with a wicked gleam in his eye.

As the boys continued playing around with the cloak, Hermione fished up a piece of paper and began to mark out something on it. After several moments she called them over, showing them that she had created a schedule of sorts with all three of their names on it. "These are the only corridors that aren't protected by security cameras," she said. She had scribbled down the names of a handful of wings in the building. "If somebody's sneaking around the school these are the corridors they're going to want to use. I've assigned shifts to each of you based on who has morning classes, endurance, and…"

"All right, I think we get the point," said Ron quickly. "We take turns staying up all night to keep watch for Constantine."

Hermione nodded. "Exactly. And one more thing, I'd like to know why he got his niece to come in today? He's never missed a day before and I can't imagine him calling off his class because he got sick or something," she said.

"So what do you expect us to do about that?" said Harry.

Hermione fell into deep thought. "Well…we could check out his office," she said.

All three boys turned to stare at her. Hermione blushed deeply. It was the first time since they'd known her that she'd suggested doing anything even remotely against the rules, and this was about as against the rules as it was possible for a student to get without killing anybody. "It's the only way to see what he's really up to!" she said in her own defense.

"Yeah? And what if we walk on into his office and he's hanging out there, smoking his bazillionth cigarette of the day?" asked Harry.

"He's not in the school," said Neville. Now everybody turned to look at him, and after several moments he sighed and pulled out his communicator. "There's a trace that tracks everybody in the school. See?" He pressed a button and a holograph erupted from the communicator, showing the building in 3-D with small figures representing actual people in the building.

"Another Bat Toy?" said Ron, whistling.

"Actually, no," said Neville, blushing. "At least, I'm not supposed to have it. I was messing around at the mansion over the break, during one of my off days, and I found a file in the computer of discarded applications. I noticed that one was marked Academy and downloaded it onto my communicator. This is what I got."

"That's…that's really illegal," said Hermione in astonishment. "That's an invasion of privacy and…and…"

"And really bloody convenient!" said Ron. "Do you think you could download that onto the communicators my dad made us?" he said.

"I could try," said Neville. "But it would work better if…" He stopped talking, turning to glance at Hermione.

"What? Oh, no! I can't do that!" she said.

"It's for the good of the school," said Ron.

"But…but…"

"Hermione," said Harry. "If the whole school blows up then we won't even have a final exam to take."

Hermione paused one second more, then reached out her hand. "Give them to me," she said. "I'll have them ready by your first shift."


	17. Tripping the Hellblazer

**Harry Potter: A Brave Beginning**

**Author's Note:** I actually have a bit of a break from my (paid) writing projects tonight, so I'm trying to get out a couple of fanfic chapters before I do a little work on my original fiction. I guess I'll tell you guys a little bit more about that project when I get around to writing a little bit more of it. Right now I'm still in the planning stages, but I'm hoping to eventually get it published. Wow…rambling. Totally off topic. Going to start writing now.

**Tripping the Hellblazer**

"Friday shift, reporting," said Harry over the communicator. He and Ron were standing off to the side of the main hall, watching as the last stragglers passed by as they made their way to their dormitories before curfew.

"Right. Get out of sight before the monitors come out," said Hermione, voice crackling over the tinny speaker. Harry exchanged a glance with Ron and nodded. As nonchalantly as possible they started down the side hall, one of the ones that Hermione had mentioned as lacking a security camera. When the only students remaining in the hall had their backs turned Harry and Ron ducked into the boy's bathroom.

It was thankfully empty. "All right, we're out of the way," said Harry.

"I see you in the boy's bathroom," said Hermione. "See if you can lock the doorway."

Harry turned around quickly. The door was flat. "It doesn't lock," said Harry, exchanging a glance with Ron.

"Dude, you're a sorcerer," said Ron. "Figure something out."

"Oh. Right." Harry put his hands out, touching the door. "Esolc," he muttered. There was a slight shifting. Harry reached out gingerly, pulling on the handle. It wouldn't budge. Not a moment later he heard a loud thunk and somebody cursing on the other side of the door.

"Ouch. Just in time," said Ron, suppressing a laugh.

Harry flipped over his wrist, pressing a button on the communicator. The BatMap popped up. Harry found their position and glanced at the holograph. "Nobody we know," said Harry. "They're heading back to the dorms. I think we're safe for now." He shut the communicator down, pulling the invisibility cape out from under his shirt as he slid down to the ground, pulling his knees up to his chest. "Do you think we're really going to find anything?" he asked.

Ron shrugged. "In Constantine's office? Yeah, we'll probably find something. I don't know if it'll have anything to do with what's going on in the school, though."

"I'm not totally sure I believe he's behind what's going on," Harry confessed suddenly. "But I do think he knows something. He was here the night the science wing was destroyed."

Nodding, Ron sat down on the ground beside. "Well, Hermione's convinced. But she never really liked him much anyway. And I think she's out for revenge for the whole science wing thing," Ron confessed. "She finally told me about how she ran away from home, just like you. Me and Neville."

"Really?" asked Harry, surprised.

"Well, she was more telling Neville than she was telling me. We had some time before our shift last night."

Harry, Ron, and Neville, with Hermione's assistance, had been patrolling the corridors for two weeks. Although they'd wanted to find and search Constantine's office the first night they'd decided to put it off when it was revealed that Gemma would be taking over his classes for at least another month. And, according to the BatMap, he hadn't set foot on the campus since he first disappeared.

"Maybe he won't come back," Hermione had said happily, while attempting to perform a basic scrying spell with a ouija board. Unfortunately for her, at that exact moment the plank had spun violently towards the word 'NO'.

So they'd decided to take their time, and tonight was finally the night. Whilst January had been a bitter and cold month, more so than any winter that Harry had ever known, the sun was just beginning to warm the frozen earth into a soggy mush. It was a reminder that the end of term was quickly approaching. If they had any hope of helping the Supers protect whatever was hidden at the Academy, they had to get to work on it immediately.

They waited almost an hour in the restroom before Hermione finally buzzed in to give them the all clear. Harry pulled on the cloak and took Ron by the arm, making them both invisible before they made their way out into the hall. As she had said it was clear, and quickly the boys made their way down to the off-limits teacher's wing that disappeared around the back of the school.

Constantine's office, according to Hermione, was toward the end of the long hall. Harry and Ron were forced to walk slowly to keep their footfall as light as possible, lest somebody should hear it. As they were walking a door opened and a black man stepped out of one of the rooms, a trenchcoat buttoned up to his neck. Harry felt Ron pulling him to one side and he quickly followed as the man hurried past.

"Headmaster J'onzz, human form," Ron hissed when he had disappeared from sight. They waited for a moment to be sure he wasn't coming back.

When the hall was clear again they started to make their way back down. There were no more interruptions as they found Constantine's office. But immediately Harry saw that getting inside wasn't going to be as easy as he had hoped. There were a number of charred wards on the door, ancient runes that Harry couldn't even begin to identify. "Paranoid, much?" said Ron.

Harry hesitated, then reached out and touched his finger to the door. It sparked underneath his hand, but nothing happened. After a moment he reached out and put both hands on the door. A sudden warmth spread over him before fading away. "I think we're good," said Harry, when nothing else happened. He reached out and took hold of the knob. The door opened at his touch and he stepped inside with Ron at his side.

The smell of cigarette smoke and what Harry guessed to be some kind of alcohol was strong in the room, but stale, proof that it really had been since before the holidays that Constantine had been around. There were a number of strange, occult artifacts spread around the room. Harry recognized the devices that he'd been using under Gemma's supervision, spread out across the wide desk that sat at the center of the room.

There were scrolls and ancient tomes, maps and crystals, and even what looked to be scattered animal bones. The door closed behind them and Harry released Ron's arm, allowing them both to become visible again.

"This place gives me the creeps," said Ron, looking up at a large portrait of a woman with stern eyes that had been hung on the wall opposite the desk.

"It is a little creepy," said Harry. He suddenly realized that there were more forms of magic than he could possibly have imagined. Magic was so easy for him - so natural - that he hadn't even wondered if all the rituals and artifacts that he saw in books and on TV shows were actually real. Magic had always seemed like something that was impossibly bright.

There was a dark side to it too, he mused, without wondering why he'd never thought of it before.

He went around the side of Constantine's desk. The map that had been spread out there marked out all the districts of London, with a number of markings made in red ink…or what he hoped was ink…noting the sorts of things that couldn't be found in your typical tourist guide. Ron came around to look at it.

"London?" he said. "He must have gone back home for a while, for some reason."

"I wonder why. Wait…" Harry paused, leaning down to scan the map. "Look, this marking here…" He pointed at a fresh scribble on the page. A small glass that had once held a good amount of alcohol was laid on top of it. Harry pushed it aside. "Flamel? What does that mean?"

"I don't know. A place, or a name maybe," said Ron.

"He was using the glass to scry," said Harry. "You know, like you use the plank when you're doing ouija. Whatever Flamel is, he was looking for it."

Harry reached out to place the glass back where he had found it. But the moment he touched it the glass shot out from under his grasp and flew across the room, shattering against a far wall. Harry and Ron both jumped. They heard a loud click and turned. The door, which they had left slightly ajar, had now snapped shut. Ron rushed over and grasped the handle.

"We're locked in!" he said in a panic, attempting to yank the door off its hinges by all appearances. Harry cursed and darted over to the shattered glass. It had crashed against the wall next to a tall bookcase. Harry looked at the spot on the wall where the glass had shattered.

"Hey, Ron, look at this!" Harry said. Reluctantly, Ron stopped his efforts with the door and went over to Harry. "There's a space between the wall and the bookshelf. Look, you can see some sort of light in there. Come on, let's look," he said.

"Harry, I don't think…" But Ron didn't even have a chance to protest. Harry pried his fingers between the wall and the shelf and pulled slightly. It swung as if on a hinge, revealing a narrow door. A small room was revealed just beyond, filled with candles. Harry slipped inside.

Unlike every other room in the Academy, the floor here was made of thick stones. It reminded Harry of some sort of castle, or more aptly a dungeon of some kind. "How could the candles still be burning?" said Harry, looking around at the dozens of fat white pillars that surrounded them.

"Ugh…Harry, look at that," said Ron as he stepped into the room. Harry glanced down at the floor where Ron was pointing. More runes, like those that had marked the door, were scored into a circle on the floor of the room.

"What does he do in here?" said Ron. "Like…is this a magic thing?"

"It's not my kind of "magic thing"," said Harry. He stepped forward, glancing down at the circle. His instinct warned him against touching again, against having anything to do with it, and with an uneasy feeling coming over him Harry backed away.

"Come on, Ron," said Harry. "I think we'd better get out of here."

But before they could even follow through on his suggestion they heard a loud scraping from the door outside. Harry had only enough time to reach through and yank the bookshelf back into position in front of the small room before the door to Constantine's office opened.

He caught sight of Zatanna first, and then Constantine, as she held him upright and helped him stumble into the room. Harry quickly took Ron by the arm, turning them both invisible as he pressed himself up against the crack to watch exactly what was going on.

"You always get in over your head with this sort of thing," Zatanna was saying, with the sort of half-amused tone he was used to hearing from Hermione.

"Yeah, well. It had to be done," he said. Harry heard him groan as Zatanna helped him into his seat. Constantine sat back, lifting his head up into the dim light. He looked worse for the wear, his face bloodied and bruised.

"You could have asked for help you know," said Zatanna. She took a seat on top of his desk.

"Didn't know it was going to be that big of a fluffing deal. Holy fluff, can't you get this mumblefluffing ward taken off me?" he spat.

Zatanna laughed, shaking her head. "Oh, no. Those poor children already have to deal with your bad attitude and smoking. The least I can do is keep you from corrupting the English language."

Despite being so battered, Constantine raised an eyebrow. "Love, I've got something to tell you. I'm English, and the language has been bloody well corrupted without my help." He leaned back, unearthing a half-crushed package of cigarettes from his pocket. He tapped one out, glancing up at Zatanna as he lit it. "So you haven't asked yet."

Cocking her head, Zatanna glanced down at him. "All right. I'll play. Obviously you've got something to tell me," she said.

"I found Flamel," said Constantine coolly. Zatanna's smile faltered. She sat up, swiveling around to face him.

"Nobody's seen or spoken to Flamel in centuries," she said. "How did…"

"Called in a few favors." Constantine took a long drag from his cigarette, the light and smoke illuminating his craggy face. He paused for a moment. "Your lot do realize how much you owe me for this, don't you?"

"And you know we appreciate it, or at least I do," said Zatanna. "Now tell me what happened?"

Back in the room, Ron nudged Harry in excitement. Harry pressed forward, slowly pushing the bookshelf away from the wall to get a better look at what was going on.

"Flamel's dead. He was before I got there," said Constantine flatly. Harry heard Zatanna gasp.

"Who…" began Zatanna.

"Flamel himself. Died of old age. At the nice, ripe old age of 700 something or other years. When I got there a horde of demons had taken over the mansion, searching for the stone. Of course, I just happened to land right in the thick of it. And, of course, the lot of them assumed I was after it too. Like I'd need it. So we had a little bit of a misunderstanding."

"Hmph." Zatanna reached out, touching the gash over his left eyebrow. There was a light shimmering in the air and the cut healed itself. Constantine closed his eyes.

"Thanks, love," he muttered. "Anyway, I did get a chance to go through some of his documents. Not a clue who might be after the bloody thing now."

"Do you think it was demons?" Zatanna asked.

"Definitely not. Demons work in more subtle ways than this. Whoever's after the stone is one of your lot," he said.

There was a long silence following his statement. Finally Zatanna removed herself from his desk, coming around to stand beside him and lean over the map. She traced her fingers over it, touching the spot where he had marked Flamel's name. Harry felt suddenly uneasy, and rightfully so. Constantine suddenly leaned forward, glancing at the spot and then up and around the room. Harry jerked back when he looked straight at the bookshelf and shot up from his chair, marching over to the spot where shards of glass still covered the floor.

"John?" asked Zatanna.

"Somebody's been in here."

He reached out and yanked open the door. Harry felt his heart fall down to his stomach but the cloak held its own. Constantine looked right through them and deep into the heart of the room. Harry pulled Ron out of the way as he strode inside. The moment the man was out of the way Harry yanked Ron after him and moved past the bookshelf.

He brushed Zatanna lightly and she whipped her head around. But seeing nothing she turned back to Constantine. "It might have been Bats. He doesn't trust you, you know," she said.

Constantine laughed coarsely. He continued his search for a moment and finally shook his head. "Of course he doesn't. Why should he?" he said. He reached over, wrapping his arms around Zatanna's waist. "But you trust me, don't you love?"

Zatanna raised her eyebrows. "Not one bit. Never have," she said.

"Smart girl."

Realizing that they were about to see more than they'd bargained for, Harry moved with Ron toward the door and slipped through into the hallway outside. Not caring if their footsteps could be heard they broke into a run and burst through into the hallway outside. By the time they reached their room they found Hermione sitting inside their room with Neville.

"What happened?" she said, standing up suddenly. "I was watching on the BatMap, I saw…"

"They didn't see us," said Harry. "But I don't think Constantine's the bad guy here," said Harry. "At least, I'm not sure anymore."

He told Hermione and Neville everything that had happened. Neither had heard of a man named Flamel before, but both reacted with reasonable skepticism when Harry mentioned that Constantine had said the man was over 700 years old. After a small amount of debate they decided to keep up their watch on the halls at night, but any more snooping was - for the moment - out of the question.

"So what do you think?" Harry asked Ron after the others had left. "About Constantine, I mean?"

"I think he's one spooky dude," said Ron.

"Yeah. But do you think he's the one behind this?"

Ron was thoughtful for a long moment. "I'm not sure," he said. "I mean…well, he's obviously up to something. That secret room and all those creepy things in his office…blech!"

"But Zatanna knows about all that. And she's definitely not up to anything," said Harry.

"Yeah, but we don't know how much he's telling her is truth, either. Or why he was looking for this Flamel dude in the first place. Or why a bunch of demons would be after a stone."

"So…what now?" said Harry. "We start making a list of all the potential bad guys in the school?"

Ron shrugged. "Sounds about as good a plan as any other we can think," said Ron. He reached over and cut off the light. "I'm going to sleep. We'll get together with Hermione and talk this thing over tomorrow."

Since tomorrow was Saturday Harry, Ron, and Hermione had the day off to do whatever they wanted. Neville had to go back to Gotham City for the weekend, so the three promised to update him as soon as he returned with whatever they came up with in the mean time.

They woke up earlier than usual for the weekend, and it was barely ten o'clock when they heard Hermione knocking on their door. "I called your dad, Ron. He's taking us down to the Smallville Library today," she said simply, before walking away.

Harry exchanged a glance with Ron before darting after her. "What do you mean?" he asked.

Hermione spun around, glaring at him as if it was his fault for not completely understanding what her plans were. "We need to figure out who Flamel, is. And any research we do here at the Academy is going to be traced," she said in a low hiss. "Now get ready. You can't be going around town in your pajamas."

Harry glanced down, realizing he was standing out in the middle of the hall in a T-shirt and a pair of shorts. He blushed and excused himself, dressing quickly. By the time he and Ron were both ready Hermione had returned, her hefty book bag once again slung over her shoulder.

Artie was already waiting for them, and feigned disinterest as he drove them down to the Smallville Library. "I'll be back around five o'clock," he said as he left them.

Hermione and Ron almost immediately got onto the computers. But Harry, still trying to get his thoughts in order, excused himself and began to wander the dusty shelves. He finally found himself in a section marked "Lore and Mythology", and wondering if he might find mention of a 700 year old man somewhere in its depths made his way down the aisle.

He was busily searching through the shelves when he heard a light voice say, "Excuse me." He turned around to find a girl around his age, slight of build with light strawberry blond hair standing there.

"Oh. Sorry," he said, stepping back to give her room.

She smiled and stepped in after him, perusing the shelves for a moment before picking up a book. "You aren't from my school," she said after a moment. "Do you go to the Academy?"

Harry nodded mildly. He flipped open the book he held in his hand, trying his best to look disinterested. But the girl put her hand out and, reluctantly, Harry took it.

"My name's Lauren Lang. How are you?"

"Er…Harry Potter. Nice to meet you."

The girl's eyes opened wide. "THE Harry Potter? I've heard all about you. Wow!" She glanced down at his book. "Mythology of the Middle Ages?" she read aloud. "You must be in really advanced classes," she said.

"Yeah," said Harry. "I guess."

She smiled at him again. "I've got to go. I have, like, a ton of homework. Maybe I'll see you around sometime!" she said. And just as quickly as he'd met her she left. He stared after her for several seconds, his mind in a haze. Then, blushing, he returned to his book. And immediately found the name Flamel on the first page.

He rushed out to Hermione and Ron, sitting the book down on the table between them. "Look! Nicholas Flamel!" he said.

Hermione and Ron both glanced down. It took only a moment for Hermione to read the entire paragraph. When she had, she gasped. "That's it!" she said. She darted off, making photocopies of the pages in the book. And then, ready for a breather, they made their way out of the library and back to the little café that Harry had stopped in his first day in Smallville.

They discussed Flamel over sodas and cheeseburgers. "So he created this thing called the Philosopher's Stone," said Hermione. "Alchemy. Not only can it change anything into gold, it can make something called the Elixer of Life…Harry, it can make somebody immortal!"

"That must be how he managed to live so long. Until he let the stone come here, and died," said Harry. "But why?"

"Because somebody is after it," said Hermione. "But that's the real problem isn't it? This stone can make people immortal! Anybody would want that, super or villain. Our list of suspects just went from one to who knows how many," she said.

"Except Constantine," said Harry. Both Ron and Hermione turned to stare at him. "He said something about…what was it? 'Like I'd need it.'" Harry shrugged. "I really don't think he's after the stone."

"I don't think you should discount him that easily," said Hermione in a huff. It was obvious that she still had her own feelings about the man.

"I agree with Harry, actually," said Ron. "I wouldn't trust him with my life, but I do think he's on our side. Or at least, not on the bad guy's side," he added quickly.

Hermione sighed. She leaned back, sipping at her milkshake. "So this is what we do," she said finally. "We figure out who in the school would want it. We figure out who's that desperate. Maybe somebody is working for somebody else, someone who's sick, or dying…"

"Or maybe somebody who's already dead," said Harry suddenly. It was a thought that had been brewing at the back of his head for a while. The moment he said it, he felt himself grow cold. "Somebody like Voldemort."


	18. The Third Transformation

**Harry Potter: A Brave Beginning**

**Author's Note:** Yep, another chapter tonight. I expect to have this story done and the next one started within the next couple of weeks, at this rate. (By the way, I know I might have mentioned Lavender before but just ignore it. She's taken on a new rule because I say so.)

**The Third Transformation**

"I think you're getting carried away," said Hermione nervously.

"It makes sense," Harry replied.

"I'm on Harry's side," said Neville. Everybody in the group turned to look at their friend. He had a grave expression on his face, and Harry was surprised for only a moment before remembering what he knew of his friend's history. Of course Neville would be on his side. None of the others could possibly understand what he was going through.

They had just filled Neville in on everything that they had found out on their trip to the Smallville Library. There was no denying now what was being hidden on the satellite; but why it was being hidden there, and who could possibly be after it, was now the current subject for debate.

"They could be protecting it from anybody," said Hermione. "It doesn't have to be…well…you-know-who," she said.

"But if it was just anybody after it, why move it? Why would Nicholas Flamel let himself die just to keep the stone safe?" said Harry.

"The man was over 700. Maybe it was just his time," said Hermione, although the frown on her face indicated that this was a point that she'd been considering as well. Although she hadn't said as much, Harry knew that she was still convinced that Constantine knew more than he was letting on about the Philosopher's Stone.

Several days had passed since Harry and Ron had snuck into Constantine's office. Harry had only just began to let his guard down, especially since he'd already had two classes with the newly returned teacher. The moment he'd stepped back into the classroom they'd abandoned their divination lessons, to Hermione's dismay, and returned to spellcasting (to Harry's relief). But nothing had happened to indicate that Constantine had any idea the two of them had been in his office that night.

"Anyway, I did have something new to show all of you," said Hermione. She reached for her book bag and pulled out a laptop computer with wires sticking out of it every which way. She placed it gingerly at the center of the table in Harry and Ron's room, and then pulled out the crystal ball from earlier. "I've tried actually seeing the room where the stone is hidden, but I guess either I'm not good enough at this sort of thing or I'd actually have to know where the stone was to see it," she said. "But I did manage to see what we saw before; the night the wing exploded," she said.

"What did you do?" said Harry in astonishment, leaning forward as she connected a few of the wires to the crystal ball.

"I rigged up an imaging system to the crystal. Anything we can see in here is recorded on the computer," she said. "I was always interested in the practical applications of magic in the sciences," she added with a smug smile.

"You've got to be kidding me!" said Ron. "That's awesome!"

Hermione tapped out a series of commands on the computer and all of a sudden a window popped up on the screen. "Think of it as a totally computerized crystal ball," she said. She touched her hand to the crystal and all of a sudden an image flashed up on the screen. Hermione reached out with her free hand and tapped a few more buttons. A foggy image emerged from the cloudy image on the screen, the same image that the two of them had seen in class.

There was Batman again, and the image of Nightwing quickly followed. Shortly after Constantine strode across the screen and then everything went up into flame. "So it looks the same, right?" she said.

"Yeah. It's like we saw before," said Harry. "Batman, Nightwing, and Constantine."

Hermione shook her head. "Look again." She released the crystal and began to tap out commands on the screen. The image rewound itself, and after a moment of letting it replay Hermione hit pause. "Do you see that?" she asked, pointing at the computer. The three boys leaned forward.

"See what?" asked Ron.

"That," said Hermione, pointing at the bottom corner of the frame. Harry squinted, and after a moment saw the small blur that she was trying to point out.

"What is it?" he asked.

But Ron knew the answer before any of them did. "A speedster. Like Ginny, or the…" He trailed off, eyes opening wide. "The Flash."

Hermione nodded. "So we know that Mr. Allen was here too that night. I'm sure he was probably working with Batman, but right now we can't discount anyone, so…"

"So Mr. Allen goes on the list," said Harry. "So is that it?"

"Not quite. There's one more." Hermione turned the computer around and began to type. It was several minutes before she turned it around again. This time she'd frozen on the frame of Nightwing. "Look at this," she said. "On the other side of the frame. You can see a shadow on the ground, and a little flash of red. Somebody was with Nightwing."

"It had to have been Flamebird," said Neville. "They work together a lot."

"So those are the ones we know about," said Hermione. "Batman, Nightwing, Flamebird, Constantine, and an unidentified speedster. One of them has to be responsible for the destruction of the science wing," she said.

The four of them went silent as Hermione powered down the laptop. "One of them has to be a traitor," said Neville after a long moment. He looked troubled. Harry knew instantly what that was. Most of the people that they now listed as suspects were part of his new family.

"Well…" It was Ron who spoke this time. Everybody turned to look at him. "What if the science wing wasn't destroyed by an enemy? We're just assuming it was," he said. "Didn't you say that something had disappeared from the rubble, Hermione? A transporter, or something?" When Hermione nodded, he carried on. "Well, what if the science wing was destroyed to keep the stone hidden?" he asked.

They all looked up suddenly. Hermione's eyes widened. "I've got it!" she said suddenly. She pulled out her laptop again and began typing furiously. "That transporter leads into a…well, I guess you could call it a corridor." She spun the laptop around again to reveal a model of something…Harry couldn't be sure what…on the screen. "It's doubly protected. The corridor has to be open on both sides to get through. If somebody was let in, and then the transporter was destroyed on this side, then…"

"Then they'd be trapped!" said Harry.

"Emptying the school, Batman showing up…they knew somebody was after the stone. They tried to trap them in the corridor! But it didn't work. Either they didn't fall for it, or they somehow managed to escape," said Hermione.

"But that still means it was somebody we saw," said Neville.

Hermione nodded. "Yes, it has to be. Except I'm pretty sure we can rule out Batman. He had to have orchestrated the whole thing and, besides, he's one of the three people who has access to every transporter in the school."

Harry fell into deep thought. He was remember Halloween night. "And whoever's doing all this must have tried to get Batman to open the corridor on the night Clayface showed up. After all, Clayface is one of Batman's big enemies. They knew Batman would show up if they let him loose here at the Academy."

"So…that also means…" Hermione trailed off. Harry realized what she had been about to say and turned to look at Neville.

"You think it was Nightwing," he said abruptly.

Hermione blanched. "Well…it was obviously somebody who knows Batman well. Somebody who would know him enough to try and trick him into coming here. So it was either one of his enemies, or…"

"Or somebody he's worked with." Neville stood up suddenly. "It wasn't Mr. Grayson," he said firmly.

"I wasn't saying…"

"It wasn't," said Neville again. He turned suddenly, banging Harry's door open as he made his way into the hall and down to his own room. Harry didn't know what to make of the situation, but when he turned around he saw that Hermione was hiding her face from them as she made a final show of packing up her computer and shoving it into her bag.

"I've got work to do," she said simply as she rushed out of the room and down the hall. Harry and Ron exchanged glances.

Harry didn't know what to think, all of a sudden. Hermione had made a good point and, if she was right, it had to be somebody that Batman knew well. Dick Grayson fit the bill perfectly. But Mr. Grayson was also one of Harry's favorite teachers, and he just couldn't imagine him being involved in anything…well, nefarious.

"I think," said Harry finally, "I'm going to call off the watch tonight and get some sleep," said Harry.

"I think I'm with you on that," said Ron.

Over the next few days, Neville avoided talking to the three of them and began sitting off by himself in the lunchroom. By mutual agreement Harry, Ron and Hermione put a temporary halt to their nighttime vigil; something that wasn't altogether disagreeable to any of them, as their teachers amped up their lessons in anticipation of their spring finals.

Early one Saturday morning, as Harry stumbled out of bed and into his clothes, a voice came over the intercom and announced that he had a visitor at the front gate. After a few moments of surprise he made his way through the building, ducking as a frisbee whirled across the lawn passed neatly over his head.

"Good dodge," shouted Fred, as George applauded.

Harry jogged to the front gate, not knowing who to expect, and was surprised to find the blonde girl from the library standing there, hands clasped behind her back as she waited. Behind her a woman with the same reddish-blonde hair waved at him from the front seat of her car.

"Hey, Harry. It's Lauren…remember, from the library?" she said.

"Yeah, of course!" said Harry. "Er…what're you doing here?"

Lauren blushed a vibrant pink. "Nothing, really. It's just…well, there's this Valentine's Day thing at my school tonight. It's stupid, really, but I didn't know if you had anything like it here at the Academy and I was wondering if you wanted to go? And your friends too," she added quickly, smiling.

Harry felt his heart skip a beat in his chest. "Well…I don't…"

"He'd love to," said Fred, appearing suddenly beside him. Harry got the distinct feeling that time had just swerved around him.

Lauren jumped a little at the sudden intrusion. "I…well, you don't have to if you don't want to," she said.

"No. That'd be great," said Harry. "Uhm…I'll ask my friends Ron and Hermione along too, if that's okay," he said.

"Sure," said Lauren, although at the mention of Hermione's name he noticed her face fall a little bit. "Bring whoever you want. It's going to be at the school. Eight o'clock." She paused for a moment, then with a smile told him goodbye and ran back to the car. The woman in the front seat leaned over, waving again at him before the two sped away.

"Ladies man!" said Fred, wolf-whistling.

"Oh, shut up," said Harry. He stormed back up to the school, finding Ron stationed in the front hall and scarfing down his breakfast. He took a seat beside him, pouring a bowl of cereal. "Where's Hermione?" he asked.

"Hasn't come down yet," said Ron. "What's up?"

"This girl from school in Smallville just asked me if I wanted to come to her school's Valentine's Day thing," said Harry. Ron sputtered and began to choke on his cereal.

"What?" he finally managed.

"It's no big deal," said Harry quickly. "You and Hermione are invited too."

"A dance? With girls?" said Ron.

"Well, that's usually the way it works," said Harry, although he was having his own doubts about accepting Lauren's offer all of a sudden.

"The way what works?" said Hermione, appearing all of a sudden from behind them. "And what about girls?"

"Harry's got us invited to a dance thing," said Ron. "Tonight."

"Oh. Really?" said Hermione, yawning widely. She pulled over a bowl and the box of cereal that was still in front of Harry. "I can't make it. But you two have fun."

News travels quickly, and before too long the buzz got around that Harry and Ron had been invited down to the "normal" school. Just before eight the two of them, in what could pass as a slightly less rumpled version of their normal clothes, went down to the front gate. Idling outside was a familiar truck.

"Hey, Mr. Kent," said Ron. "You again."

"I heard you boys needed a ride," he said with a grin. Harry looked up at him, remembering what he'd thought when he met Superman in the Chamber of Erised. For just a moment he'd wondered aloud of Mr. Kent was Superman's secret identity, but he'd quickly banished the thought. After all, Superman was extraordinary, and Clark Kent had lived in Smallville for most of his life. It just…well, didn't seem possible.

"Thanks," said Harry, climbing into the passenger side of the truck.

Ron climbed in after and slammed the door shut. "Lauren's mother is an old friend of mine," said Clark. "Actually, kind of an old flame," he said with a wink. "Since I'm still in town she called and asked if I wouldn't mind carting you down to the junior high. But I heard there were going to be three," he added.

"Our friend Hermione couldn't make it," said Harry.

"Ah. Of course. The one with the heavy backpack," he said with a chuckle. "You tell that girl not to work so much. It's not good for you."

The trip down to the school didn't take long, and before long they were dropped off at the front doors. "I think Mrs. Lang said she'd drive you back up, so I'll see you kids later," he said.

Harry and Ron waved him off, but before they could turn around Harry smelt the familiar scent of tobacco filling the air. He turned around quickly, spotting Constantine standing there in his battered trench coat.

"Just pretend I'm not here," he said. "I drew the short straw, so I get to be your fucking escort tonight." He grinned suddenly. "Fantastic, isn't it? Zatanna's charm only works at the school."

Harry didn't know how to respond, and was saved when Lauren Lang walked out of the front doors and called out to him.

"Hey! Harry, there you are!" she said. "And you're Ron?" she asked.

Ron, for his part, suddenly lost the power of speech and began to steadily turn a brighter and brighter shade of pink. Harry managed to introduce the two of them to each other, with Ron barely managing to mumble a hello.

"And…what about your girlfriend?" she asked shyly.

"Oh, Hermione's not my girlfriend," said Harry automatically. Lauren suddenly smiled and he cursed inwardly. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Constantine smirk. "Uhm…she had homework," he finished.

"Great! I mean…well, I'd like to meet her sometime. Come on in, it's a bit cold out here," she said. Reaching out, she took Harry by the hand and pulled him after her through the front door and into a crowded lunchroom. Up on the stage a small booth had been set up and a man was playing a bunch of the popular music Harry sometimes heard other kids at the school listening to.

They stopped at the punch table and stood there awkwardly for a few moments, watching as the throng of twelve and thirteen year olds filling the room bobbed up and down to some sort of pop song. Harry had almost forgotten what it was to be in a normal school after almost a year at the Academy. He realized, as he watched the other students, that this was what he'd have been doing if he hadn't gotten the holodisk from the Academy.

"So, you don't have dances and things at your school?" asked Lauren.

"Well, we did for Halloween," said Harry. "But it got kind of crazy."

Lauren giggled. "Crazy like how?" she asked.

"Oh, you know," he said, realizing his misstep. "You know how us nerds get," he finished lamely. All of a sudden he glanced up and saw that a girl in a bright pink dress with a mass of curls had walked up to them and was smiling in Ron's direction.

"Oh! Harry, this is my friend Lavender ," said Lauren.

Lavender smiled shyly. "I was wondering if your friend might like to dance," she said.

Ron coughed suddenly, getting even pinker if that was possible. "S-sure!" he finally got out. Lavender reached out and took him by the hand and the pair moved off onto the dance floor.

"Uhm…" Harry glanced out at the floor, down at the punch in his hand, to the floor again and finally back at Lauren. "Would you like to dance?" he asked.

Lauren grinned and took him by the hand. He put his drink down quickly and followed her out to the floor. A fast song was just ending and before he knew it a slow song had taken its place. Unsure of where his hands were supposed to go, Harry finally gave up and continued holding one, placing the other lightly on her waist.

"So, you like it up at the Academy?" she said.

Harry gulped, nodding. "Yeah, it's great."

"So you're from Dallas?" she said. "I've kind of always wanted to go. It seems like a pretty cool place."

"It's not bad," answered Harry automatically. "I never really saw much of it though. My aunt and uncle kept me on lockdown most of the time."

Lauren laughed, and Harry winced. Of course, she probably thought he was joking, but what he'd said was closer to the truth than anything. They both fell silent for the rest of the song, and as soon as it was over Harry mumbled something about needing another drink and went back to the table. He stood up on his toes and looked around the room for Ron but couldn't see him anywhere, nor could he see the girl in pink.

"Hey, do you know where Ron and Lavender went?" asked Lauren, noticing the same problem. Harry shook his head.

"One second." Lauren disappeared into the crowd, talking to a couple of people. After a moment she returned, frowning.

"That guy in the trench coat came and got them," she said. "What do you think…"

Harry didn't even give Lauren a chance to finish her statement. He raced out of the room and through the doors to the front of the building, finding it abandoned. "Ron?" he called out. "Ron!"

"Harry!" Ron's voiced cried out from the darkness beyond the edge of the school. Without thinking Harry took off in his direction, ignoring Lauren as she ran out of the school after him to see what was going on. He ran as fast as he could and finally caught a glimpse of Constantine dragging both Ron and Lavender by their arms.

"Hey!" Harry shouted.

Constantine whipped around. "Shit!" he stammered, pushing Ron and Lavender roughly down onto the ground.

"What are you doing to my friends?" asked Harry. But before Constantine could respond Ron had taken off running deep into the darkness. Constantine ran after him, with Harry close behind, and soon Harry could see where they were going. A large lake was glittering in the moonlight. Ron dove in effortlessly, disappearing into the murky depths.

"You don't understand what's going on, kid," said Constantine. But Harry wasn't going to stand around and listen. Almost without thinking he launched a fireball at the man and it erupted in a wide circle around him. He ducked down, putting up his arms to shield himself, and when the fire died away Harry could see the edges of his trench coat still smoking.

All of a sudden Harry heard a scream. It was Lavender, and she was looking out at the lake. A dark shape seemed to hover over the water, and in one hand it was clutching Ron.

"No!" Before he realized what he was doing Harry took off and jumped into the water. It rushed up around him, surrounding him with blackness. He realized too late that he had dove into too shallow waters and the silky mud had twined itself around his legs, holding him to the bottom. He began to kick, but to no avail. Several moments passed and his head began to throb from the lack of oxygen as he tried to get free. Then, having no other choice, his body forced him to open his mouth and breath.

Water rushed into his lungs. But rather than make his world go black it suddenly seemed that he was able to see through the shadowy depths. He slid free of the mud and moved forward through the depths, onward and onward and faster and faster.

Realizing suddenly what had happened Harry leapt up and over the waves, his serpentine form glittering in the moonlight. The form that was holding Ron recoiled and dropped his friend back into the waves. Harry dove under again, and spotting his friend's unconscious figure moved forward to grasp him in his jaws and return to the shoreline.

Constantine stared at Harry, mesmerized, as he transfigured back from the water dragon that he'd become into a human shape. "Not bad," Constantine breathed.

"What did you do?" asked Harry as Ron began to cough and splutter. "What was that?"

"If you'd just give me time to…"

All of a sudden headlights shown on the lake. Clark Kent stepped out of his truck and slowly walked over to Constantine. "Is there a problem?" he asked slowly.

They seemed to be staring each other down. "Fuck this," said Constantine suddenly. "I've spent too much time in this bloody town anyway." He walked away from Clark, lighting a cigarette as he did so.

"Awfully cold to be taking a dip," said Clark, although there was a serious tone to his voice that Harry had never heard before. "Lana Lang called me, said that you'd taken off on Lauren. She said Lauren sounded upset. I think you're going to need to apologize to her," he said. He bent down and helped Ron to his feet. Ron, for his part, appeared dazed, uncertain of what was really going on.

"Yeah. Uhm…thanks, Mr. Kent," said Harry.

Clark drove them back to the school in silence. The boys didn't say anything about the incident for the rest of the evening, and the next day were forced to tell Hermione everything that they had witnessed.

None of them were surprised when, on Monday morning, it was announced to the entire school that Constantine's classes had been canceled for the rest of the year.


	19. Team Effort

**Harry Potter**: A Brave Beginning

**Author's Note**: Getting close to the end of Harry's first year at the Academy. Just a couple more chapters after this one. Home stretch, baby, yeah!

**Team Effort**

Seemingly overnight, spring took its hold on the Academy. The formerly muddy yellow fields began to brighten to green, flocks of birds began to swoop in in endless droves, and riots of red and yellow and purple wildflowers began to sprout up in every direction.

Nobody seemed to take too much notice of Constantine's departure, nobody but Harry and his friends that is, and even that topic seemed to get lost as their teachers dove into the final stretch of classes before finals. Neville, after hearing what had happened the night of Valentine's Day, had forgiven Hermione's suspicions, and to her credit Hermione had largely left the topic alone.

But, when she was away from Ron and Neville, she made it clear to Harry that she still wasn't convinced that there wasn't more to the situation than met the eye.

"Something just doesn't seem right," said Hermione. "Why would he go after Ron?"

Harry shrugged. "Maybe he figured out that he was in his office that night," said Harry.

"But you were there too," Hermione insisted.

Harry sighed. They were sitting outside, soaking up the first warm day that they had had in a very long while. Classes had just ended, and dinner had yet to begin. He laid back on the grass and stared up into the bright blue sky, thinking. There was a part of him that didn't want to listen to her, because he was still afraid of his initial suspicion - that Voldemort had somehow been involved in everything. But then again there was a part of him that knew better than to doubt Hermione's judgment.

"Well, what are we going to do then?" asked Harry. He heard Hermione exhale slowly.

"I think it's time we go to one of the Supers," said Hermione.

Harry sat up quickly. "What?" he asked, puzzled. "Why? They probably know more about this than we do."

"Do they know about Constantine attacking Ron?" she asked.

Harry didn't know how to respond to that question. In fact, he really didn't have an answer to that. They hadn't spoken to anybody about Constantine's attack, mostly because both Harry and Ron feared that doing so would mean admitting to sneaking into the teacher's wing. Something like that, they both knew, was grounds for immediate expulsion.

"We need to know more about what happened that night," said Hermione when Harry didn't say anything.

"How?" he asked. "Ron already told us everything he knew."

"But Ron wasn't the only person that was there," said Hermione.

"What? You mean that Lavender girl?" said Harry.

"She saw what happened. And since you didn't tell anybody at the school about what happened she probably hasn't even had her memory erased. Of course, for all she knows it was just some creep in a trench coat making threats but still…"

"She might have picked something up, yeah," said Harry. "I guess I could call Lauren and see if she and Lavender would be willing to meet us," he added.

Hermione's head whipped around. "Oh. Lauren. Right," she said. All of a sudden she ducked down, becoming very intent on picking blades of grass out of the ground.

The moment Harry got back to his room, he picked up his phone and after a moment's hesitation dialed in Lauren's number. He'd had it sitting on his dresser for weeks, planning to call her and apologize for what had happened that night, but he hadn't yet had the courage to do so. Now he held the phone to his ear and listened to the tinny dial tone until a woman's voice rang through on the other end.

"Lang residence. Lana speaking."

"Uhm…Ms. Lang? This is Harry Potter. I was wondering if Lauren was…"

"She's right here. One second." He heard a faint shuffling and then Lauren's voice came in on the other end.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Harry. I'm sorry…you know…for not calling and stuff," he said, realizing the moment he'd spoken how lame he sounded.

"Oh…it's okay," she said. "I bet you're super busy up at the Academy."

"I was wondering if maybe you'd like to have lunch with me? You and your friend Lavender," he added. "It's…kind of important," he said.

"Lavender?" Harry winced at the strange tone of voice that Lauren used. He was preparing to apologize again when Lauren said, "I haven't seen her since Valentine's Day. It was…really weird, actually."

"Weird?" Harry sat down on his bed. "What happened?"

"She just…disappeared. I tried to call her but she must have given me the wrong number or something. I guess she probably just moved away, since she only moved up here a few months ago anyway. But still, I'm kind of worried."

"Yeah." Harry frowned. The not-rightness of the whole situation had just gone up by a thousand.

"I'm sorry," said Lauren. "I'll talk to you later." Harry heard her move away from the phone and all of a sudden felt something strange come over him.

"Wait." There was a long pause.

"Yeah?"

"I'd still like to have lunch with you sometime. Maybe over Easter break," he said. "I don't have anywhere to go so I'll be here."

"Yeah! That sounds great!" said Lauren. "Bye Harry! Talk to you later!" The phone clicked and, with a sigh, Harry hung up. Lavender had disappeared? That was definitely not good. He immediately set out from his room to give Hermione the news, and ended up relaying the information to all three of his friends as they sat down for their dinner.

"You don't think he's still around, do you?" said Neville, leaning in over his meatloaf.

"Must be," said Ron. He'd gone pale at the news of what had happened to Lavender.

"I still say there' something wrong with all of this," muttered Hermione as she picked at her dinner.

Harry was more and more in agreement with Hermione. He glanced up at the teacher's podium and glanced at Mr. Grayson, who was actively engaged in a conversation with Mrs. Queen. He was smiling brightly. Could he really have been involved in whatever happened? He just didn't seem like the sort.

He was in the middle of these thoughts when he felt something hit him in the back of the head. A sharp sensation of cold came over him as a chunk of ice slid down the back of his shirt. Harry jumped up, startling his friends as he yanked his shirt up and let the ice drop down to the ground. Nearby, Draco and his friends were laughing manically.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Idiots," she muttered.

"Why don't you just fly away, Potter?" said Draco, making little flapping motions with his hands as his cronies jeered.

All of a sudden a feeling of intense anger came over Harry. He dropped what he was doing and marched over to Draco's table, ice spreading out from around his palms until he was encased in ice up to his elbows. He was about to lunge, fist aimed at Draco, when a force stopped him in mid-movement.

"That will be enough," said Headmaster Jones, frowning down at the boys in disapproval. He had teleported from the teacher's podium, or so it seemed, and was standing right in front of them. Harry suddenly felt his anger disappear and realized that he'd once again become subject to one of Draco's tricks. "Mr. Potter, detention. And the same for you, Mr. Malfoy."

"What? What'd I do?" said Draco incredulously.

"We do not abuse our powers in this school. We learn to use them wisely," said Headmaster Jones. "You are both Zatanna's pupils. I will have her contact you tomorrow to decide your punishment."

Draco glared at Harry as he slowly made his way back to his table, slumping down.

His friends stared at him goggle eyed. It was Neville who finally spoke. "That ice thing was awesome Harry. Too bad Headmaster Jones stopped you. I'd have liked to see you clean the floor with Malfoy."

The next day, after his class with Zatanna, she pulled the boys aside. "So. I heard the two of you were playing around during dinner," she said severely. "That sort of thing is definitely not allowed. I've arranged for you to spend the evening in the simulator."

The simulator? Harry almost let out a sigh of relief. Although he was always left worn out after a round through the sim, it definitely wasn't the worst way he could think of to spend an evening. At least, it wasn't until he heard the rest of what Zatanna had to say.

"As magicians, you need to learn to work together - not against each other. So you two will be partnered up. If either of you dies, the sim will restart itself. And the sim isn't over until you complete your mission. I expect you on the satellite at six o'clock sharp."

Harry spent much of the rest of the day wondering if it was even going to be possible to complete a mission with Draco Malfoy. If they were expected to work together then he thought he might just be stuck in the simulator forever. Draco seemed to have the same thought when he appeared at the teleporter, scowling at Harry as the boys silently made their way up to the satellite to meet Zatanna.

She quickly suited them up and pushed them into the console. Once inside the boys realized that they were in for a long evening.

The streets of Gotham City stretched out before them, wide and empty. It was pitch black. "What the heck?" muttered Draco as he took a few tentative steps out onto the road. Harry followed him, looking around. And then all of a sudden he saw a light flash into the sky. The bat-signal.

"Just stay out of my way," spat Draco as he took a step forward.

"Zatanna said we had to work together," Harry countered, moving after him.

"Listen, Pothead…" Draco trailed off as all of a sudden a dark, shadowy figure loomed above them. "What the…" he started.

Batman swooped down off of a rooftop. "Wait, Bats is going to help us?" said Harry. But before he could completely finish that thought a batarang came swinging toward him and he was knocked to the ground. Harry felt his arms jerked back behind him as his glasses were knocked from his face. As he glanced over, he could see that Draco had met a similar fate.

"FAILURE!" a booming voice called out. Harry felt his arms being released and he shakily got to his feet, replacing his glasses on his face.

"Wait a second," said Harry. "Are we the bad guys?"

"BEGIN!" All of a sudden Harry and Draco were once again standing in Gotham City. Harry glanced up and once again saw the bat signal. He quickly ran and ducked into the shadow. Draco stood in the middle of the street, a sour expression on his face as he put his hands up to fight.

"Over here!" Harry hissed. But it was too late. No sooner had he said anything than the figure of Batman leapt down from the sky and felled Draco in one steady swoop.

The simulation reset itself again. "Get over here!" Harry yelled again. After a moment's hesitation, Draco ran over toward him to the shelter of the dark alcove.

"Now what?" the boy sneered as Batman appeared out of the darkness. Harry looked first left, and then right, before speeding along through the dark alley. He wasn't sure at first that Draco had followed but after a few moments he stopped in the shadow of a large warehouse and Draco practically fell into him.

"Watch it, Potter!" he hissed, pushing Harry. "I have things to do. Let's finish this and get out of here."

"And how do you expect us to do that?" asked Harry. "We can't defeat him!"

"It's just a holograph," Draco drawled. But he had a nervous look in his eyes as he said it. He began to talk again but Harry put his hand up. The sound of movement from high up above gave them only a moment's warning before Batman swooped down, tangling the both of them up.

The simulation rest itself again. Draco slowly got to his feet, looking around at the square. "All right. This ends now," he said. He put his hands out. This time, when Batman appeared, a wall of fire rose up between him and Draco. But the backlash whipped around and knocked Harry to the ground, startling him for an instant until he realized that although it looked like the real thing the fire was nothing but a holograph, just like the rest of Gotham.

The simulation ended. "What the heck?" shouted Draco. "He didn't even touch us!"

"You just killed me, idiot," said Harry, getting back to his feet as the holograph restarted itself.

"Well, watch yourself next time!" said Draco.

"Why don't you just shut up!" Harry shouted. This time they didn't even get a chance to run away or try to fight. They were still arguing as the Bat-holograph pinned them to the ground.

Simulation after simulation started and ended. They tried attack after attack, but nothing worked. Draco even attempted to control the holographs emotions but after only a momentary struggle it broke free from the effort. Finally, winded, Harry stood back.. "I don't know how I'm supposed to do this," said Draco. "Not with a worthless little toad like you who doesn't even know what he's doing."

"I think what we're supposed to be doing," said Harry. "Is trying to escape. There's no way to defeat him."

Draco sneered, but after a moment he narrowed his eyes. "All right then. So let's get this over with and get out of here."

"This way," said Harry as another simulation began. This time the boys managed to find a pathway through the city, and at the far end of the simulation they saw a narrow bridge that, in real life, led out of Gotham. But they had no sooner found the pathway than, coming across a high ledge, they got caught in a disagreement that gave the holograph just enough time to catch up to them.

They tried twice more, each time getting just a little further before some disagreement or cross word forced them to start the entire exercise over again. As they were tackled again, Draco fell to his knees for a moment. "There's only one way to do this," he said. He stood up slowly, one hand reached out to Harry. Harry realized all too late that Draco's eyes had gone entirely white. He had just noticed this when he felt his mind starting to dull, the world around him fading like color from a picture.

And his world went black.

When Harry opened his eyes again he was standing at the end of the footbridge with Draco right in front of him. "Mission Completed," said a voice, and the virtual reality around them faded into blackness before a door opened up in front of them.

"I'm so sorry, Harry," said Zatanna quickly, pulling him out. "Another evening's detention, Draco. That was most certainly uncalled for. Behavior like that will not be tolerated."

"Like what?" asked Harry, still a little dazed. He didn't know what had happened from the time that Draco's eyes had gone white until the present.

"Go back to your room," said Zatanna fiercely. Draco was glaring at him, a look of intense hatred on his face. "Go," Zatanna insisted again, giving him a little push.

It wasn't until Harry was almost back to his room that the color came back and he realized what had happened. "That bastard did some sort of mind control thing on me!" Harry fumed as he marched into his room. Ron and Hermione were seated in front of a small table playing chess when he entered.

"What?" said Hermione.

"He just…controlled me! Like a puppet or something!" said Harry. He took a seat on the floor, placing his head in the palm of his hand and willing what was left of the mush inside to go away.

"Draco?" said Hermione again, this time incredulously.

"Who else? That stupid, disgusting…how can they let people like that in the Academy? He'll turn out to be a villain, for sure!"

"So what happened?" said Ron.

Harry explained the events of the simulation chamber, down to going blank for a little while and waking up with the entire thing finished. "So you think he took control of you?" Ron finally stammered when he was done telling them what had happened.

"Of course he did!" snapped Harry. "I knew he could control emotions, but…"

"But he's been training all year long," said Hermione. "Just like you have. Just like everybody else has."

"I had no idea…I just never realized that there was such a thing as mind control, and stuff like that," said Harry.

"It's really rare," said Ron. "But yeah, it's happened a few times. The worst one was Voldemort though," he added.

Harry stopped rubbing his temple and looked up. "What?" he said. "I thought he was just like…a dark sorcerer or something."

"Well, he was that of course," said Hermione. When both boys glanced at her, she shrugged. "What? I've read every book written about him." She shifted so she was looking at Harry. "The thing with you-know-who is that he was able to control a large amount of people, all at once. At one point he had most of the villains in the world under his control, and only about half of them worked for him willingly. It was like an equation…"

"He infects five people, who each infect five more. Yeah, my dad mentioned it before," said Ron.

"I just hope Draco doesn't turn out to be that powerful," said Hermione. "The last thing we need is another Voldemort on our hands."

They ended the night early. Harry was still a little achy from the multiple simulations he'd been through and the last of the haze was fading from his mind.

It was one o'clock in the morning when he blinked his eyes open and, like a brilliant flash through his mind, he sat up straight in bed. He jumped up and pulled on his robe as he stumbled out of the room, knocking on Hermione's door. After a few moments Luna answered, her hair in a wild cloud around her head. "I need…"

"She's over there, working on her transdiscombulatory whatsit," said Luna.

Harry pushed past her to where Hermione was sitting on the floor. "I need you to do something for me," he said.

She raised one eyebrow questioningly, then shrugged. "Okay. What is it?" she said, setting what she was working on aside.

"I need you to hack into Smallville Junior High's computer system," said Harry. "We're looking for Lavender."

"In the computer system?" said Hermione. "Didn't Lauren Lang say that she'd moved away or something? Do you think we'll find her address?"

"Just do it Hermione," Harry insisted. Wordless Hermione grabbed her laptop and began to type. "I don't know how long this will take, but…"

"Got it," said Hermione. She leaned forward, furrowing her brows. "That's strange."

"What's strange?" asked Harry.

"There's no record of a Lavender being at the school in the last ten years. Hold on." She typed some more. "No middle names either." She continued typing as she spoke. "No variant spellings, no combination spellings. Nothing."

Harry took a deep breath. "I know who's attacking the Academy," he said. "Come on, we need to get Ron."

"What about Neville?" said Hermione, jumping up.

"No!" said Harry, spinning around. "He's the last person we want to get involved in this."

"Why?" asked Hermione.

"Because it's Nightwing, Hermione. Nightwing is the one trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone."


	20. Midnight

**Harry Potter: A Brave Beginning**

**Midnight **

"We have to go up to the satellite tonight," said Harry.

"Tonight?" Ron rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, suppressing a yawn. "What do you mean."

"Nightwing is after the Philosopher's Stone. Or at least, somebody is controlling him. Making him go after it," said Harry.

"What are you talking about?" Hermione demanded.

Harry knelt down on the floor between Ron and Hermione. He hit the communicator and the image of the school flashed up in front of them. "Look, right here," said Harry. "What do you see?"

Harry was pointed at the area that displayed the areas of the school confined to the satellite. A large, dark portion of the map was devoted to the forbidden satellite. The only visible portion of the map was the large corridor that led to the dark chamber; the corridor, Harry remembered, that Batman had attempted to trap the intruder in in the first place.

Hermione and Ron both leaned in, but it was Ron who noticed what Harry was pointing out.

"Hey!" he shouted. "That's my name!" His eyes widened. "How is that…but I'm…I'm right here!" he stammered.

"And the map shows you, right here," said Harry.

"A clone?' squeaked Hermione. Harry shook his head, absentmindedly rumpling his hair as he did so.

"No. Listen…Ron, sorry I have to ask but…did you kiss Lavender?"

All of a sudden Ron developed a coughing fit, followed quickly by a lengthy perusal of the floor. "She might have kissed me," he mumbled after a moment.

A look of triumph flashed over Harry's face. Hermione appeared flummoxed.

"What does that have to do with anything?" she demanded. "Apart from proving that Ron is easy?" she added for good measure, eliciting a glare from him.

"I think Lavender is working with Nightwing. Or, Voldemort. Whoever," said Harry. "She had some sort of mind control thing going, don't you see? She managed to convince Lauren that they were old friends when she'd never even gone to that school before. But she doesn't have superpowers of her own - she'd be at the school if she did."

"You think Lavender was the figure in red!" gasped Hermione. Harry nodded.

"But what's all this about her kissing me?" said Ron.

Harry pointed at the corridor. "Remember when we looked at the blueprints?" said Harry. "Hermione said only three people could access it. Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman. But she was wrong."

"What?" said Hermione. "How could I be wrong? The access codes, the schematics, they're all there. Only those three people can get in."

"And who do you think designed those codes? Who helped build the satellite? Who's the only technopath who lives on campus year round, who maintains every single system in the school when all the other supers are off fighting crime?" he asked.

All of a sudden both Harry and Hermione turned to Ron, who had a look of surprise and utter shock coming over his face. "My dad?"

"Yes. And since the codes, and schematics, and whatever else Hermione said are all based on genetic coding…"

"Like the front gates!" said Hermione. " It's too difficult, and time consuming, for the equipment to do a complete DNA check. So it does a genetic trace…and anybody who would be a close enough match would be able to get into the satellite. That's why Ginny can get in, even if she isn't enrolled in classes here yet."

"So any of the Weasleys, with the exception of your mom, Ron, could get into the satellite if they wanted to. Or, at least, they could get into the corridor."

With that revelation over, the three were able to suddenly understand exactly how and why everything had unfolded the way it did. Voldemort, in control of Nightwing, had first tried to use Batman to make the trace. Nightwing had been an ideal choice for possession - he probably knew more about Batman than anybody else in the world. And he'd known how to play Batman right from the beginning. That was why Clayface had been released into the school. As one of Batman's oldest archenemies, it had been a sure bet that he would show up to fight the monster.

But Harry, Ron, and Hermione had foiled that plan. And later Batman, using Ron's idea of taking everybody out of the school to clear the area, had set up a trap to try and capture Nightwing. But he'd managed to escape, and after that had realized that trying to use Batman any further was useless - he was on to his scheme.

He must have realized that Artie had access to the satellite after the explosion. Like Hermione, he had been in and out of the castle non-stop helping in the repair efforts. But Artie had been too difficult a target, and likewise for Fred and George, with their time-tripping powers. So he'd used Lavender as bait and, with a single kiss, she'd managed to create a genetic trace that allowed her to disguise herself as Ron.

And now, according to the map, Lavender was making her way through the corridor and to the stone.

"Why doesn't it show Nightwing?" asked Ron.

Hermione closed her eyes. Harry already had his suspicions, but they weren't confirmed until he realized that his best friend was suddenly, absolutely terrified.

"Because the map is confused. Voldemort's possession on him must be pretty strong. It can't identify the target."

"Which means we have to get there right away and stop him," finished Harry. A moment passed, and without any of them saying anything they knew that they were all in agreement. The time for studying was over. They were ready for their first test.

With only a few moments to prepare, Hermione darted away to her room while Harry and Ron changed. Ron pulled on the sleek black wetsuit, and Harry paused for a moment as he reached for his official uniform. "Not tonight," he muttered.

Reaching into his closet he pulled out a black athletic top, pulling it on. He was surprised to find that his muscles, at the beginning of the semester so drawn and thin, now pushed through the elastic fabric. He'd barely even noticed the effects his training had had on him, until now. He pulled on a pair of black jeans, throwing the cape over his shoulders and securing it. And then, right as he was closing his drawer, he spotted the black domino mask that he had worn on Halloween laying right at the bottom.

He took it in hand, sliding it over his face.

Just outside the window, a light rain had begun to fall. Harry turned toward it, taking a deep breath. "Mom. Dad…I hope I'm doing the right thing," he said, placing his hand against the glass.

A bright, gold and scarlet arc suddenly crashed down from the heavens. It spread across the ground and up the walls, pouring into the glass. Harry felt a static charge surround him. A light, shimmering glow filled the air. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

And when he opened them Harry looked down to see the golden lightning bolt now emblazoned across his chest.

"Lumos," said Harry, holding out his hand. He suddenly held a ball of light cradled in his palm. A smile crept over his face, a smile that was tinged with all the sadness he had ever felt. He turned to the window, at the sky that had now gone dark. "Thank you," he said quietly, extinguishing the orb.

Hermione was waiting outside their door. She blinked in surprise at Harry appears, glancing down at the lightning bolt that glittered on his chest.

"I should have expected that," she said with a quiet laugh. "What do I call you now? Harry the boy wonder?"

"Why don't you tell me what you're doing?" came a voice from very close by. Neville stepped out of the shadows. "No. Wait. Don't tell me. You obviously think that you know best," he said. "I heard everything you said over the communicator. And I can't let you do this…"

"Neville, no!" said Hermione. But before she could do anything to stop him he had leapt out and tackled Harry to the ground. Ron jumped on top of him pulling him away, but Neville was too strong.

"Petrificus totalus!" hissed Harry. All of a sudden Neville went stiff, falling back onto the ground.

"What did you do?" gasped Hermione.

Harry stared at his paralyzed friend. He shook his head. "I'm not sure yet," he said. "I'll let you know once I figure that out." He knelt down. "I'm so sorry," he said. He took Neville by the arms and pulled him into his own room, closing the door behind him.

Then, taking both Ron and Hermione by the arm he made the three of them disappear and they rushed together down the hall and straight to the teleportation pad. Although it was disabled for the night Hermione made quick work of it. It was while she was working that Harry noted her appearance.

Like them, she was dressed all in black, but her clothes were mostly civilian. She wore a pair of black converse sneakers and black tights, and over that a dancer's leotard. Her long, curly hair had been scooped up into a ponytail and across her chest, like a bandolier, she carried an assortment of gadgets.

"We're like…real superheroes," said Ron, breaking the silence as the teleportation pad hummed to life.

"Yeah, maybe. If we survive this," said Hermione. The three of them stepped onto the bad and Hermione punched in the coordinates to take them to the forbidden satellite. The computer paused for only a moment before, with a slight hum, a low voice informed them that they had been granted access.

They shimmered out of sight and reappeared in a low metal chamber. In front of them was a metal door, three times Harry's height.

And guarding that door, with eyes that glittered red, was a three-headed dog.

"What the…" Hermione started. She then shrieked as the beast snapped at her, spittle foaming from its mouth.

"How the heck do we get past that?" asked Ron.

"Well, there must be a way," said Harry. "Somebody's already been through the door." He pointed at the space just beyond the creature, where a thin beam of light pierced through from somewhere beyond. It was as he was pointing that he noticed the charred marks on the ground. Charred marks that looked all too familiar.

"Ron, look! Constantine's runes!" he hissed.

His friend looked to the ground. "He put this thing here?"

"He must have," said Harry. He looked up. The beast was straining to move closer to them but it couldn't move past the circle of runes that covered the ground.

"So what do we do now?" asked Ron.

"We look to see how Nightwing got past it," she said. She reached into one of the pockets on her bandolier, pulling out the now all-to-familiar crystal ball. Harry reached out for it but Hermione shook her head.

"Let me. This is the one magic thing I actually know how to do," she said. She cradled the ball in her hands, staring deeply inside it. After a long moment she gasped, looking up. "I've got it! Music!" she said.

"Music?" said Ron and Harry, in unison.

"Nightwing had a small recorder with him. He played some sort of melody…hold on, I think I can build a radio real quick."

She pulled out a handful of wires and little pieces of metal. 'Build?' Ron mouthed to Harry. After about fives minutes she rigged up some sort of small device, attaching the crystal to it. All of a sudden a faint, haunting melody began to fill the air. The monster blinked and suddenly began to slump down on its front legs. Finally it fell onto the ground, eyes open but bleary.

"Come on," she hissed. Skirting the edge of the monster they came into the second room. It was immediately apparent that this one, too, had been protected. Everything went dark and, like something from a bad dream that kept repeating itself, over and over, Harry found himself standing in Gotham City.

"Watch out!" he cried, pulling his friends after him. They had just enough time to get out of way before Batman swung down at them, growling angrily. "It's a simulator, like the one Draco and I were in!" he said. Then, unable to miss a blow, Harry felt himself flung several feet into the air. Deep inside his chest he felt a faint crack and a deep pain went through his left side.

All right, thought Harry. So it wasn't exactly like the one he and Draco had been in.

This one really fucking hurt.

He pulled himself to his feet. "Can you disable the sim?" asked Harry, glancing over at Hermione.

"Yeah. In about ten minutes."

"Then I guess we'll have to hold him off until then," said Harry. He closed his eyes, willing himself to transform. He felt his body shift and change, sleek feathers sprouting from his skin. And he was lifting into the air, arcing high over Batman as Ron ducked and rolled to get out of his way.

Aiming at his face, Harry dove down, folding his wings instinctively for maximum momentum. The Batman holograph stumbled back, flickering suddenly in and out of focus like a forgotten wavelength on an old television. Taking his cue, Ron swung out at his feet and sent him toppling to his feet. Harry swooped back down to the ground, becoming human for just an instant before turning into the golden stag.

As the holograph got to its feet, Ron positioned himself behind it. Harry lowered his head and began to run, butting into the holograph's chest and sending him careening back several feet, smashing into a nearby building. Bricks corroded and crumbled.

"It's not working!" Hermione cried out.

Harry became human again. While the holograph attempted to right itself Harry fished inside his mind for the right words to use, the mysterious language that had suddenly entered his head dancing just behind the shadows of his thoughts. "Protego," he muttered. A shimmering shield quickly shot up between them and Batman.

"Harry, it's not working," said Hermione again. "The simulation is far too encrypted! I can't do it!"

Clutching at his broken rib, Harry took a deep breath. The holographic Batman was now pounding at the shield, and with every blow he could feel it growing weaker.

Fire, thought Harry suddenly. Earth, and water, and even wind he had conquered. But never fire…

He felt something growing them, and a massive power began to erupt from deep inside him. The earth around grew smaller - Ron standing nearby was nothing more than a feeble speck..

The shield broke. The holograph stumbled out. And with an agonizingly thunderous roar Harry arced down and breathed a cloud of fire onto it. Dense smoke filled the air, and when it dissipated he found himself lying on his back at the center of a dark, empty room, with Hermione on one side and Ron on the other.

"That was the coolest thing I've ever seen!" said Ron. "A dragon!"

"Mission accomplished," said a quiet female voice, and at the other end of the room a door slid open with a gentle hiss.

Ron and Hermione helped Harry to his feet. He winced as the area where his rib had broken began to throb. "Are you going to be okay?" asked Hermione.

"Yeah. Just a bruise or something," Harry lied. He straightened up, ignoring the pain. "Let's go."

They continued on. Almost immediately, before Harry could even see what the next room contained, Harry knew that there was something different about the atmosphere there. There was something briny in the air. In the moment it took him to adjust to the dim light, Ron took a deep breath and exhaled.

"Water," he said, a faint hint of amusement and surprise in his tone. As his eyes focused and he caught the faint glitter of the rolling waves, Harry could see that Ron was right. They were standing on the edge of a shallow dock. A few feet away the metal plank gave way to a large pool that stretched all the way to the other end of the room, where the light from the next room glimmered like a beacon.

"What's so dangerous about that?" laughed Hermione nervously. "Other than the fact that I can't swim?"

"You can't swim?" said Ron in surprise. From the tone of his voice it seemed she might as well have just told him that she didn't know how to breathe.

"I never had time to learn," she said.

Ron moved cautiously toward the water, crouching down. He reached down, sliding one hand into the waves. The moment he came in contact with the waves there was a deep groaning from somewhere far beneath. Harry saw him freeze in the shadows. Very slowly Ron stood back up. His eyes were widened, a look of terror frozen on his face.

"Harry," he said, his voice barely a whisper in the shadows. "When I say go, you're going to transform into your water form. You're going to grab on, Hermione. And you're going to get across the room as fast as you can."

"I…what?" said Hermione.

"Ron, you can't…"

"It's the only way," said Ron. His friend began to turn. The waves began to ripple now, more violently. It suddenly occurred to Harry that they were standing in the middle of a satellite. There was no wind, no tides to make the water lap against the dock the way it was. No reason, at all, that a body of water would ripple and churn, or begin to froth at the center.

"GO!" Ron screamed. Harry, ignoring the pain, leapt into the pool, in his water form before he touched the surface. Almost immediately he felt a hand latch on to his back. He began to tear across the surface of the water, jerking his head back around to see what was happening. What he saw would haunt him for ages to come.

Ron stood alone, at the center of the dock, a vortex of water rising around him like a clear glass cylinder. Roaring up through the water came an enormous beast, sharp-beaked and wild. Tentacles flailed across the surface of the pool, wrapping around the dock and reaching out for his friend. He almost turned back, when Ron's gaze drifted up one final time. He saw him once again mouthing the word GO and, realizing that there was nothing to be done, tore through the final stretch and leapt up and through the door..

He landed, sputtering and human, at the doorway of a complex computer lab. He tried to turn around but the door slid shut behind him. "No! Ron!" he shouted, banging fruitlessly at the metal slab for a moment. Then he turned to Hermione, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground and chattering.

"What was that thing?" she gasped.

"Some sort of giant squid," said Harry. "I don't know." He paused. "What if…?"

"No what-ifs," said Hermione. She slowly got to her feet. Her hair had come loose from its ponytail and was plastered against the sides of her face. She moved to the giant console that occupied the center of the room.

"What is it?" asked Harry.

Hermione hesitated for a moment before touching the keyboard. All of a sudden several teleportation pads appeared in a semi-circle around them. "The end of the corridor. And a puzzle," she added as several lines of text appeared on screen."

"My brother the left leads to darkness and woe; for those on a quest his brother near has not far to go. Another path leads to the beginning, and our small sister would imprison the strongest among the strong. Do not seek the Quinod key; what is the error in our function?" she read aloud.

Harry stared, blinking. He hadn't understood a word of what Hermione read. Seeing his confusion, she explained, "One of the paths leads you back to the entrance of the corridor," she explained. "And one of them will take you out of it and into the secret sector of the satellite. The others will trap you, or lead you into darkness, or disintegrate you."

"Oh. Well," said Harry. "That sounds reassuring."

Hermione began to type on the computer. The screen lit up with thousands of characters that had no meaning to Harry at all, but Hermione leaned forward with a rapt expression on her face, mouthing something to herself as she continued to type on the screen. After several moments one of the teleportation pads blinked and died.

"Got one offline," she said. "Now how about the others?"

One by one she shut off the more dangerous of the pads until only two were left, one on the far right and one at the center. "Okay. I'm pretty sure I got it," she said. "The center one will take us into the final room. The one on the end will get us back home."

She started to step forward but Harry reached out, taking her by the arm. "Hermione. You go on back to the beginning of the corridor. Find Headmaster Jones, or Zatanna, and get them here as soon as possible. I'm going to go on in."

"Harry, you can't -"

"If something happens, we can't let Nightwing get out of here with the Philosopher's Stone," said Harry. "It's the only way. Now go."

Hermione hesitated a moment longer. Then, taking a deep breath, she stepped up onto the teleportation pad and disappeared. Harry was left alone in the computer room. He stepped up to the teleportation pad that would take him to the end of the corridor and stepped on.

Everything went dark.

Then he was standing the middle of a dark room. He jumped out of his skin when he saw somebody just a few feet in front of him, staring directly into his eyes, before realizing that he was looking at a reflection of himself. Harry stepped back in wonder. The Chamber of Erised. He moved forward, pushing open the door, and stepped inside.

He stood at the center of the same desolate street, for the third time. But now there was something different about Gotham City. Something dark and dangerous.

A newspaper flitted by, slapping against his leg. He reached down and grabbed it, glancing down at the headline. "Batman Destroyed; New Savior For Gotham," he read to himself.

"A beautiful dream, isn't it?"

Harry looked up. But instead of Nightwing, a man in a dusty leather jacket stood there, face encased in a Red Hood. "I'd wondered if you would make it this far," he said. "Allow me to introduce myself." He reached up and pulled the mask from his face, revealing the craggy and haunted countenance of a man touched by insanity.

"My name is Jason Todd."


	21. Resurrection Termina

**Harry Potter: A Brave Beginning**

**Author's Note: **And so we have it; the next to last chapter of this story. I honestly was never sure if I was going to finish this one, so it's a good feeling to know that I actually managed to wrap things up. It gives me hope that eventually I'll manage to get one of my original stories finished, edited, and sent off to a publisher. (Here's hoping, right?) Anyway, without further ado, the (almost) final chapter of part one (of what may very well turn into seven stories).

**Resurrection Termina**

"Jason Todd?" Harry stared up at the man in disbelief. It took several moments for him to place the name. He finally remembered something that Neville had said in passing. "You were Robin!" he finally managed to stammer. Then, taking a quick step back, "You were _dead!"_

_Jason began to laugh, the sound unsettling as it echoed through the empty streets. "Ah, yes. Fortunately, the dead don't have to stay dead, in this world," he said. He continued to stare down at Harry. "I'll bet you believe everything the Supers tell you." His tone was vitriolic and full of disgust. "Look at you, and your little costume. I bet you feel like you could really make a difference, don't you?"_

_Harry wasn't certain what to say; he wasn't even that certain what to do. He simply stood there while Todd continued to hurl insults at him, and at the rest of the superhero world. After several moments, there came a second voice. _

"_Let me through." it hissed. Todd stopped in the middle of his rant. "Turn around…" it hissed again._

"_Yes, Master," said Todd. As Harry stood there he slowly began to turn around. Scar tissue was revealed up and down his throat, and when he had completely turned Harry stared in repulsion and horror at the second face that stared back at him; the face, Harry realized, that was usually concealed by the hood. _

"_So there you are," the voice gasped hollowly. Harry felt a sickening pain overcome him as the face glared down. "It has been…so long…to think that such a child would have been my undoing…" _

_A low, repulsive laughed echoed out across the streets. "But," it continued, "You are strong…so very strong. And you could be stronger if you would only come with me…"_

_The voice continued to drive itself into Harry's psyche. Despite himself Harry could feel it tightening up deep inside him, slowly unfolding itself through the channels of his mind. He pushed it away in disgust once he realized what was happening, once he realized that his mind was slowly being overtaken by this horrible figure._

"_Never!" shouted Harry._

_The voice began to laugh again. "He protests," it hissed._

"_How are you still alive?" Harry shouted. "You should be dead!"_

"_Only the weak die," said the voice. "The strong…and the lucky…find ways to survive._

"_I had been moving through the world, little more than a shadow, when I finally found the place that I had been seeking. The Lazarus Pit."_

_Harry felt a cold chill come over him at the mention of that place. He took a quick step back, wondering how he'd be able to escape. _

"_Of course, I had no body at that time. It had been wholly destroyed," said the voice. "So I had only to wait until an appropriate host was thrown into the pit. And that host came in the form of young Mr. Todd…so cruelly used by Batman, so desperate to find his proper place in the world. You were the perfect host, weren't you Jason?"_

"_Yes, My Lord," came Jason's voice. The decrepit face grinned. _

"_I have been inhabiting Jason for some time now. I have given him power beyond his wildest imagination. And in return, Jason has been watching the Justice League for me. Not too long ago, we stumbled across a man who was over 700 years old…Nicholas Flamel. We made a plan to steal the Philosopher's Stone so I could return to my rightful body and be a proper partner to Jason…but our plan was discovered and the stone moved here."_

"_And you've been the one after it, this entire time," said Harry. "You released Clayface, and Batman blew up the science wing to trap you in the corridor," said Harry._

"_How unfortunate that Jason was played so easily by Batman, once again," teased the dark voice. Harry could see Todd tense up, his fists bunching in anger as those words were said. "By the time we returned this last chamber had been added. The stone is hidden in here, somewhere. I can feel it. But I have searched everywhere."_

_Harry turned first one way, and then the next. Gotham City, and according to the newspapers that littered the ground Batman defeated. The Chamber of Erised must have picked up on Todd's desires when he had entered, and an elaborate projection had extended out in either direction. _

_But why the chamber? Like the bearer of that dark voice, Harry could sense that the stone was somewhere close. And then it struck him. Both entities wanted the stone, but for very different reasons. Jason Todd wanted nothing more to destroy Batman, and Voldemort wanted nothing more than to return to life, and power. Neither of them actually wanted to find the stone - just to find the stone, and nothing more._

_So that's what he had to focus on. Harry took one last look at Todd/Voldemort and broke into a run, jetting past them as he made his way up the streets of Gotham City._

"_Find the stone," he thought. "Find the stone…"_

_All of a sudden a bright light flickered into life for a moment down one dark corridor. Harry changed direction and ran after it, listening as he heard Jason Todd's footfall come after him._

"_He's mine to kill!" he heard Voldemort snarl. Harry ducked between two large buildings when he saw another glimmer of light. _

_After running for what seemed like ages he was finally led into a low basement. Darkness folded in around him, and the source of the light was finally revealed. A great and beautiful bird, almost as large as he was, alighted at the center of the room. Harry took several cautious steps toward it. The bird turned its head quizzically, staring up at him. Then without warning it began to shift, morphing into a human shape right before Harry's eyes._

"_Good job," said Harry's mirror image, tossing the stone in a perfect arc to land right in Harry's palm before disappearing._

_Harry shoved the Philosopher's stone into his pocket just as he heard footsteps approaching from outside._

"_You thought you could outrun me?" laughed Todd as he appeared. _

"_I…I just…" Harry began to stammer._

"_I've had enough of this game," said Todd. Then all of a sudden he saw Harry's hand moving away from his pocket. "What did you find?" he hissed._

"_N-nothing!" Harry stammered. "I-I just…"_

"_He lies," came Voldemort's voice. "Search him."_

_Jason Todd moved forward, hand outstretched to grasp Harry by the arm. Then, the moment his hand wrapped around Harry's flesh, he screamed out in pain and surprise. Harry felt a low throb begin to pulsate through his head. He opened his eyes just as he began to smell the horrible, acrid scent of burning flesh. Todd yanked away his hand. _

_Like a burning ember, his glove had been burn and the skin underneath was burning brightly, glowing with fire. _

"_No!" Voldemort screamed. What happened next would take Harry days to remember in full, and even longer to understand what had fully happened. He rose up from the ground, wings spread out to either side. He shot up and glided down to land on top of Todd, his claws grasping the front of his costume. Todd tried to push him away, but his grip was too strong. He began to scream and lightning began to arc around him, piercing through his flesh._

_He thought he could hear Voldemort escape, the spirit that had inhabited Todd's body disappearing into the shadows._

_As Todd fell back, his glazed eyes staring up and into nothing, the simulation ended. Harry was now standing at the center of the mirrored chamber, and caught a glimpse of the thing that he had become. An enormous bird, just like the one that he had seen in the simulation. Iridescent feathers covered his body, from dark gold to turquoise to glittering violet._

_He slowly transitioned back into his human form, and with a faint sigh collapsed unconscious on the floor._

_He blinked his eyes open. Everything was blurry. Reaching out with one hand he found the bedside table and, fumbling for a moment, located his glasses. He slid them onto his face and looked up. Standing in front of him were three people. Miss Diana, in a fluttery dress, Mr. Kent in a pair of jeans and a flannel workshirt, and a somber-looking man who could be nobody other than ._

"_Wh-where am I?" stammered Harry._

"_You're in the infirmary," said Diana. "At the headquarters of the Justice League."_

"_You'll be taken back to the school as soon as you've healed a little more," said Mr. Wayne. "You're little number in the Chamber of Erised did a little more harm than you realized."_

"_The…the chamber?" And then it all came flashing back to him. Jason Todd, and the Philosopher's Stone, and his transformation into…into what? He didn't even know what had happened to him. "The stone!" he gasped, sitting up quickly and feeling a strong pulsating start at his temple._

_With her hand on his shoulder, Diana pushed him back down gently and firmly. "Don't worry about the stone. It's been destroyed."_

"_It should have been done sooner," said Mr. Wayne with a dark scowl. "Unfortunately our best judgment isn't always used in cases like these."_

"_How exactly do you mean?" asked Harry._

"_Well," said Mr. Kent slowly. "We knew that Voldemort was after the Philosopher's Stone, and that he had found a human host," he said. "We didn't know that that host was Jason Todd, or just how aggressive he would turn out to be in his efforts to find it."_

"_Or that a twelve year old and his friends would be so persistent in figuring out what was going on, and track down the stone himself," said Mr. Wayne. "I even gave up and tried to have Neville stop you. Fortunately, that little spell you used didn't do any lasting damage."_

"_Neville was in this too?" said Harry. Now this time he did sit up, despite the pain in his forehead, and with a sigh Diana took a step back._

"_Only toward the end," said . He glanced around at Diana and Clark Kent. "Do you mind giving us a moment?" he said._

_Diana raised an eyebrow but, at Mr. Kent's insistence, she followed him wordlessly out of the room. Mr. Wayne pulled up a chair and sat down next to Harry. He pulled out a laptop computer and plugged in a flash drive, typing for a few moments before pulling up a screen with what appeared to be surveillance footage._

"_I realized that you were investigating the stone just before Christmas Break. I sent Neville home with the tracking system so he could keep an eye on the three of you. It was Neville who decided to "share" the tracking system with the three of you. I wasn't aware he had done that." A hard gleam came into his eye, one that Harry couldn't quite understand. It looked to be mild irritation and pride, as well. He couldn't quite understand it._

_He clicked a few buttons and pulled up a video on the computer. "You suspected Constantine for quite a while, I believe. That actually wasn't a bad guess. Constantine became a teacher here at Zatanna's insistence. She's suspected for a while now that Voldemort would be making his return. Constantine accepted the offer, but only because he had already heard a rumor that the Philosopher's Stone was here."_

"_He did want it?" said Harry._

"_No. I wanted to be certain it was destroyed." Constantine stepped out of the shadows, scowling a little at Batman as he did so. "I went to England to find Nicholas Flamel, and a way to destroy the bloody thing. But you already know that, don't you?" he said with a smirk._

"_Erm…" Harry felt himself turning a dark red. "I'm…sorry?"_

"_Never apologize," said both Mr. Wayne and Constantine in unison. _

"_I didn't really have any way of stopping you. And unfortunately Neville didn't follow his commands and helped you quite a bit. He did do his best to deter you from looking into the possibility that Nightwing was the one after the stone, but he had suspicions about Constantine too."_

"_Right. Here we are." Having finally pulled up the footage that he wanted Mr. Wayne twisted the laptop around to show Harry. He saw immediately that it was his confrontation with Jason Todd/Voldemort in the Chamber of Erised. Harry watched for a long moment, a chill running down his spine at the image he was presented with. _

_They watched for several minutes, until the moment when Harry transformed. His eyes widened as he shapeshifted into a large multi-colored bird. _

"_I really did that," said Harry, full of wonder. _

"_A Thunderbird," said Constantine. "And you spoke the language of the Old Ones. When you performed your magic."_

_Harry paused, thinking of what had happened after he'd been touched by the lightning right before embarking on his quest into the satellite. _

"_What does it mean?" asked Harry finally._

"_It means," said Mr. Wayne, "that you're going to be a lot of trouble for us." He snapped the laptop and picked it up, leaving the room without another word. Now Harry was left alone with Constantine and he looked up at him nervously as he came around and sat on the edge of the bed. He looked first one way, and then the other, before pulling out a battered pack of cigarettes and lighting one._

"_Fag?" he asked, holding up the pack._

_Harry blinked, before realizing that Constantine was offering him a cigarette, then shook his head violently._

"_Good choice. Cigarettes kill; I'm living proof of that." He lit one up, and paused for several moments. The glow of his cigarette cast shadows over his face as he looked thoughtfully into the nothing around him. "You caused me a lot of trouble. I was forced to leave the school for a while there. The Supers thought that I really was after hurting you and your friends, for a while there."_

"_I'm sorry," said Harry._

"_Don't be. You did a good job. Don't trust anybody; that's the thing a lot of you kids have a hard time learning, holed up in this school." He stubbed the cigarette out and stood. "Just one thing, before I go." He turned to Harry, staring down at him. "You might want to keep the new language a secret. Voldemort wove his spells that way; it's not going to help you make friends if you go off spouting phrases like that where just anybody can hear you." he said._

_Then without waiting for a response he was through the door. Harry stared after him for a moment, then turned around and curled up under the blankets and drifted back into a deep and welcoming sleep, where he didn't have to think about all the things that he had just learned._

_He returned to his dorm room that evening, to find all of his friends waiting for him with several cases of soda, video games, music, and an enormous cake that Ron explained had been sent up to the Academy by his mother._

_After stumbling back when Ron and Hermione hugged him and accepting greetings from Luna, Dean, and the rest, he found Neville sitting on Ron's bed looking about as miserable as it was possible for a boy to look. "Harry," he started, "I'm really sorry…"_

"_It's okay," said Harry. "You were trying to do the right thing…"_

"_But I could have messed everything up…" Neville sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I'm never going to be any good. As a sidekick, or a hero, or anything. I don't even know why Mr. Wayne…" He stopped, blushing. "Sorry," he said quietly. _

"_We couldn't have done any of us this without you," said Harry, reaching out his hand to his friend. Neville looked at it, and then looked up at Harry. "I think Mr. Wayne knew exactly what he was doing when he made you Robin." _

_After a long pause Neville reached out and took Harry by the hand. Then all of a sudden he grinned. "All right. Let's get this party started!" he said._

_Constantine strode through the halls of the Academy, grateful that the halls were mostly empty. A few lone stragglers saw him and quickly removed themselves from his presence. He simply grinned at their insistence in staying as far away from him as possible. _

_He found his way to his office, bypassing the front room and moving immediately toward the small backroom. The candles roared to life as he entered. _

_A small dark shadow lingered like a stain on the floor at the center of the circle. "You failed," said Constantine conversationally as he lit a cigarette._

"_You…failed…" said a raspy voice._

"_Oh, I wouldn't say that. It was an interesting diversion, seeing what the boy could do. He's proving himself to be even more powerful than his father ever was. Perhaps not as smart as his mother, but given time…"_

_There was a low hiss. Two glinting lights blinked forth from the shadow, like glittering eyes in pitch darkness. "I tire of your games. You must find another way of bringing me back to life."_

"_I don't think so," said Constantine. "To be honest, I was never really going to bring you back anyway. I already have enough on my hands to deal with to be resurrecting the…sorry, what is it you like to call yourself? Dark Lord, is it?"_

_The shadow began to gurgle, a sound that began to resemble an angry growl. _

"_Anyway, I'm not too keen on souls possessing other souls. We might have been able to strike a deal, if it weren't for the whole Jason Todd thing. As it is, I'm afraid that our little business arrangement is over."_

"_You…work…for…me!" the shadow hissed._

_Constantine raised one eyebrow. Then, flicking the cigarette right into the center of the shadow, he kicked over the nearest candle so that the wax pooled heavily onto the stone floor. One by one the other candles toppled over. The circle broken, the shadow dissolved into the darkness and disappeared. _

"_Find somebody else to try and possess," said Constantine. "I work for myself."_


	22. Beginnings and Endings

**Harry Potter: A Brave Beginning**

**Author's Note: **All right! The end is here. I actually finished a story; this is quite an achievement for me. This one literally started as only the vaguest of ideas so that I actually managed to flesh it out and develop a plot is actually giving me a lot of hope for my future career as an author. (Fingers crossed!)

The next story in this series will officially be titled **Harry Potter: Humanity Lost. **I'm not sure when I'll manage to post the first chapter of it. Hopefully within the next two weeks, and definitely within the month.

**Beginnings and Endings**

"I can't believe I'm actually happy to get a B!" Hermione sat down on the end of Harry's bed, beaming as she looked over the final report card of the year. Harry glanced over her shoulder. Apart from the grade she'd received in Constantine's class every mark was an A. A handful of notes at the bottom of the page also indicated that she would be skipping years in most of her core classes.

"Well, I passed everything at least," said Ron.

"Same here," said Harry. Although most of his marks lingered in the B and C range he'd managed to pull out an A in magic and, to his surprise, in his physical combat courses.

"So, do you know where you're going to be going yet?" asked Hermione, turning around to look at Harry.

He shook his head. "Headmaster Jones just said that my guardian for the summer would be here to pick me up today. I'm not sure who it is."

"I'm sorry you can't come and stay with us," said Ron. "You know my mom and dad talked to the Justice League, but they said they had something else planned."

He glanced over at his friend, surprised to find that Ron seemed genuinely upset that Harry wouldn't be spending the summer with him. Harry too had hoped that he'd get to spend a few months in Smallville with Ron and his wonderful family, but no such luck.

"So, did you finally talk to your parents?" asked Harry, glancing over at Hermione.

She blushed suddenly, her face turning a deep crimson. "Well…" she started slowly. "They still think I'm going to Stanford."

"And…"

"And I just don't think they're ready to hear the truth, especially after what happened this year!" she said. "They're pacifists. If they even got the slightest idea that I was…you know, battling evil super villains and things…they'd be totally freaked!"

"You have to tell them sometime," said Harry.

"When I'm older," said Hermione. "But, until then, I'll just let them believe I'm working on my bachelor's degree."

Harry laughed, pulling himself off of the bed. "I'll see you guys at the end of year dinner," he said. "I have a few things to take care of first."

He left the room, listening to Hermione and Ron as they began to argue about something…what it was, Harry didn't catch on to right away. He spotted Neville's door hanging slightly open and made his way over, knocking lightly. "Hey man, got a minute?" he asked.

"Yeah. Come on in."

Harry pulled open the door. Neville's room had already been disassembled, neatly packed away into several expensive looking suitcases that sat stacked beside the bed. Neville was seated on the floor, staring at the wall.

"Hey, is something wrong?" asked Harry, closing the door behind him and taking his seat next to Neville.

He nodded slightly, pushing his report card over. Harry glanced down at it, catching row after row of A. "Wow. You did really great!" said Harry.

"Yeah. Mr. Wayne thinks so too. I'll be taking over as Robin full time over the summer."

"I'm…well…that's good, isn't it?" asked Harry.

Neville shrugged. "Yeah. It is. I mean, it's what I want…to be able to do some good, in Gotham City. So no more kids have to go through what I've been through." He turned suddenly, so that Harry could see the light glisten of tears in his eyes. "Do you think it's all right to be scared?" he asked.

With a shrug, Harry sat back. He thought of what had happened back in the Chamber, with Jason Todd and the transformations. "I think you'd be stupid if you weren't scared," said Harry.

Silence fell between them for several minutes. Neville reached out to one of the suitcases and pulled it open, revealing the bright red of his costume. He ran his fingers along it for a little while. "You should be Robin," he said finally. "You're much braver than I am. And you actually have powers. I'm just some kid who doesn't know what he's doing."

"I don't think that's true," said Harry.

"But Mr. Wayne has made mistakes before," said Neville. "What about Jason Todd? What if that were to happen to me?"

"It won't," said Harry, firmly yet decidedly.

"Yeah? And how do you know that?"

"Because." Harry stood up, reaching out for Neville's hand. His friend took it and stood up after him. "You've got us," said Harry.

After he left Neville's room he ran into Luna in the hall. She was standing there, watching him as he walked toward her. She smiled at him, cocking her head to the side in the gesture that he had become so used to in their time together.

"Harry the Thunderbird," she said.

"Yeah," he said, grinning a little abashedly. "Maybe that should be my superhero name," he said jokingly.

Luna shook her head seriously. "No, I don't think so," she said. "It doesn't quite suit you."

"I think I have plenty of time before I need a superhero name," said Harry, with a small laugh, as he started to walk away.

"What you are," said Luna, "is Lumos. From the ancient language, meaning light," she said.

Harry stopped. He slowly turned to look back at Luna. "Lumos," he said quietly. A faint glow surrounded them both, shimmering even brighter than the florescent lights overhead. He suddenly smiled. "Thanks. I'll keep that in mind."

He rounded the stairwell and made his way to the front hall, hesitating for only a moment before he went through the front door and out to the front gate of the school. Lauren Lang looked up at him shyly through the gate. Just behind her Harry could see her mother watching through the car window. She smiled and waved merrily at Harry and, feeling slightly strange, Harry waved back.

"So…lunch?" she said.

"I promised, didn't I? And I'll even pay for it," said Harry.

"Like a…date?" said Lauren.

"Er…"

Lauren laughed, punching him lightly. "Don't look so freaked," she said. "Come on." Then she took him by the hand and led him to the car, where they drove back down to the coffee shop one last time before Harry went who-knew-where for the summer.

They talked about everything, it seemed to Harry: especially TV shows and movies, neither of which he was able to keep up with since he'd spent the past several months at the Academy where neither was really a big topic of interest. To his surprise, Harry found that he was really enjoying himself.

"So, what are you doing for the summer?" she finally asked.

"I…have to go away, until the Academy starts up again," he said.

"Oh." She turned her face away, down at the ice cream sundae that she was picking at.

"Maybe….I could give you a call or something?" Harry said, barely managing to get his words out. "I have your number."

"Really? Oh, that would be great!" She said. Leaping up from the table, she wrapped her arms around Harry and pulled him into a hug. Harry felt his face heating up, and was just turning away from her when he spotted a face at the window. Hermione stood there, Ron at her side, a strange and altogether unreadable expression on her face.

"Hey, Lauren, my friends…" he began. But when he turned back to the window Hermione and Ron had gone. "Never mind," he said. "I think it's time for me to head back to the school, or I'm going to miss seeing my friends off."

Miss Lang and Lauren drove him back, and he made his way up the narrow path and toward the doors. Ron was standing there when he arrived. "Where's Hermione?" he asked.

"You just missed her. She called a cab and headed off for the airport already."

"What?" Harry spun around just in time to see a sleek yellow car pulling down the dusty path away from the school. "Why now? She's going to miss the going-away dinner."

"She said something about needing to get home. Decisions to make, or something," Ron added. But there was something else in his eyes, something that Harry knew he wouldn't - or couldn't - ask about.

By the time Harry woke up the next morning, half the school had already gone. Neville was picked up once again by the sleek black limousine. Luna left with Zatanna, and Susan with Mrs. Queen. Draco Malfoy's father arrived in a sleek luxury car driven by a man with the same cold eyes and white-blonde hair as his son, who seemed to glare at Harry before they both drove away. Seamus took a taxi to the airport, where he'd be taking the several-hours long flight back to Ireland.

"Hey, I'll see you in a few months, Harry," said Ron when his father arrived to pick him and his brothers up. Artie waved at Harry from the front seat of the car and Harry waved back. "And if you get a chance to come back for your birthday, I'm sure that mum would make a big deal out of it…" added Ron.

"I'll see what I can do," said Harry. And then, just like that, he was gone, and Harry was one of only a handful of people left at the school. Dean was standing next to him, munching thoughtfully on an oreo, when there was a sudden flash of green light. Out of nowhere, a man was standing in front of the two of them.

Harry's eyes widened. There was no mistaking who this new person was. He looked from Dean to Harry, then extended one hand toward him.

"Harry Potter? I'm Hal Jordon. I'll be escorting you to Oa, for the summer."


	23. Author's Note and Excerpt

**Author's Note**

I have just posted the first chapter of my new story - **Harry Potter: Humanity Lost. **Thank you so much to all of you reviewers and readers who have become regular patrons of this story. Honestly, it's never one I expected to finish, but at some point the story just took hold and, well, took over.

As somebody who eventually hopes to make a career off of writing, and who has a few stories in the works, it means a lot to me to know that there are people out there who enjoy this stuff I make up.

Like most artists, I have confidence issues when it comes to my work. It can be hard, sometimes, to truly believe that other people would be willing to read something that you've spent so much time on. While this may not be the most popular story on it is definitely one of the most popular things I have ever written. It really is amazing that so many people enjoy my work.

I hope that someday I will write something "real" and get it published. When that day finally comes, I will have all of you to thank for getting me over my self-confidence crisis and for helping me to realize that this really is what I want to do with my life.

So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you everybody. I really mean it.

And since I've been informed I can't just post an author's note and expect the gods of to be okay with it, here's an extra for you...the first couple of pages of Humanity Lost. (You'll have to go to the story itself to read the whole chapter).

********

Homeward Bound

"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore," said Harry Potter, leaning out the window of his temporary bedroom and looking down at the luminous green glow of the planet below. Unlike most boys in his position, Harry hadn't been having the best of summers.

For one thing, he had had more fun in school that he thought he had ever had in his entire life. He couldn't wait to get back to school, and the rest of his friends. In addition to that, he had been forced to spend his summer in the most unusual place that he could possibly imagine - not in Texas, or Kansas, or even someplace weird like Uzbekistan.

Harry was someplace like nowhere on earth - because, as a matter of fact, he wasn't on earth. He had spent the better part of a month on the planet of Oa (as far as he could tell - time was measured differently there.)

"What is Toto?" Dean sat on the edge of Harry's bed, picking cookies out of the tin that Mrs. Weasley had sent along with him at the end of the school term. Harry turned around, feeling the familiar sense of shock he usually did when he saw his old friend in his usual form.

Although Harry had known for a while that green skinned, bug-eyed aliens existed, it was another thing entirely to turn around and see one sitting on his bed. And competing for the last chocolate-chip cookie. He couldn't exactly call Dean bug-eyed, but out of his human form Dean was approximately the color of Kermit the Frog.

"It's just a phrase, from a movie," said Harry, crossing the room. "Remind me to show you the Wizard of Oz when we get back to the Academy."

"Ah, yes. The Wizard of Oz. I had forgotten," said Dean. A strange look crossed his alien face, one that Harry recognized as his friend entering a deep thought. "Are you a wizard, Harry?"

"Something like that," he said, throwing himself down on the bed and snatching the last cookie in the tin away from Dean's grasp.

From the bed, he continued to stare out the window at Oa. It was strange - just a year ago, being able to spend any amount of time in such a strange and wonderful place would have been the subject of his wildest dreams. Now all he wanted was to get back to his friends, Ron and Hermione.

There were so many things he wanted to ask. Hermione had promised him, before going home, that she would think about telling her parents about her entry into the Academy. He wanted to know if she'd gone through with it - to be there to talk to her, if things hadn't gone so well.

And Ron had told him about the hundreds of fun things that he and his brothers and sisters always had planned for summers in Smallville. The wonders of Oa somehow paled in comparison to the idea of fishing trips with Artie and the other Weasley boys. And nothing could seem as exciting as playing football or baseball with a whole gang of metahumans.

After a few moments Dean extracted himself from Harry's bed, standing. "I have a training session in the Pleiades soon. I should go," he said.

"Talk to you later," said Harry. He watched as Dean left the room and then, after a few more moments, he moved to his bed and pulled out the scrapbook that Mrs. Weasley had given him for Christmas the year before. He flipped to the last page, where he had been marking the days ever since he had arrived on Oa. He counted out on his fingers the number of days it had been since he last made any marks in the book. Five, he thought, scribbling several small x's on the makeshift calendar.

And then it hit him. He hadn't even considered his birthday - had almost completely forgotten about it, as a matter of fact. And all of a sudden there it was, staring him straight in the face.

July 31st. It was Harry's thirteenth birthday. A small chuckle escaped him at the thought that he was officially a teenager now - his aunt and uncle would be more afraid of him than ever, if he was still living with them.

"Happy birthday to me," he said morosely.


End file.
